Thinker Unplugged

Sir Keir. The human rights lawyer turned prosecutor turned Prime Minister. Quite the journey, wouldn’t you say? Though I’ve always found it curious how seamlessly some people transition from defending principles to enforcing them to, ultimately, wielding them as weapons.

You might think a former Director of Public Prosecutions would bring rigour and integrity to Number 10. You might very well think that. I couldn’t possibly comment.

But observe the man in action. Five years prosecuting the nation’s most complex cases, yet he struggles to prosecute an argument that resonates beyond the M25. He’s mastered the art of saying everything whilst committing to nothing. A lawyer’s trick, that. Useful in court. Rather less so when one needs to inspire a country.

He ran against Corbyn’s chaos by promising competence. How delightfully modest. He’s delivered exactly what he promised: competent mediocrity. The trains still don’t run on time, but now there’s a feasibility study about why they don’t. Progress, apparently.

The man has all the charisma of a wet Wednesday in Wolverhampton. And yet, that proved sufficient, didn’t it? When your opponent self-immolates spectacularly enough, one needn’t be Churchill. One need only be present and vertical. He understood that perfectly.

You might think he’s betrayed every position he took to win the Labour leadership. You might very well think that. I couldn’t possibly comment. But I will note: he promised to nationalise utilities, abolish tuition fees, defend freedom of movement. He’s delivered none of these. Instead, he’s discovered what we all discover eventually: power requires flexibility. Principles are for opposition. Governance requires… compromise.

And there’s the rub. He’s everything he condemned in others. Everything he prosecuted. The man who spent his career in black and white has found governing to be an endless study in grey.

Rather like the rest of us, really.