Masterclass needed

Gordon Lawrence, Stumperlowe View, Sheffield.

It now seems inevitable that Keir Starmer and his faithful sidekick, Rachel Reeves, will soon be scrambling down from their riskless fence to battle at ground level in an effort to restore the nation’s fortunesandendthe14allegedyears of Tory torpor.

Indeed, it’s a worry for the nation that the years of fence-sitting has not seriously dislocated their capacity to govern.

Fearful of resurrecting the demons of past Labour governments, like Callaghan’s and Brown’s, Reeves continually reiterates her resolve to maintain a tight fiscal control over all of Labour’s activities.

And this is the central approach which has left Labour a rather boring, stereotyped figure chained to all the orthodoxies of net zero and various green policies that run riot in every virtue-signalling liberal circle.

Such an agenda financially weakens the ability to wriggle free and adopt policies with a more socialist integrity and restore the image of a dedicated, confident Labour Party, typically, milking the well-off, boosting the unions, expanding the welfare state and intervening to cure the symptoms of every political pinprick ending on the road to wholesale nationalisation.

These are clearly untenable on any large scale for the initial Starmer era but already, I understand, plans are afoot to sound out revisions on employment law.

Thatcher regulation still stings and the left of the party doubtless see the opportunities to redress some of the historic hurt which Starmer will be unable to deny without raising the torment of the chronic internecine struggles that warped Labour’s past.

Making the unions still stronger will not go down well with the general public still concussed by rail, ASLEF and the medical professions’ strike action. What’s more, one of Reeves’ claimed main goals – creating economic growth – could be badly affected. Union power rarely translates into more efficiency, flexibility and industrial harmony, all important for growth.

It will need a masterclass in diplomacy and even Machiavellian skill, as well as expert economic management for Labour to live with any success in a traumatic world with this outlook and the questionable leadership they have.