Keir Starmer failed to answer the central question for Britain in the 2020s

Editorial: Without investment, productivity – and the economy as a whole – cannot begin to escape the current stagnation

6 January 2022 (Dave Brown)

It was smart for Sir Keir Starmer to try to steal the old Brexiteer line of “take back control” and use it to highlight the Tories’ own failure to revitalise and “level up” the “left behind” areas – that is, if he can pull it off.

The past few years of pandemic, post-pandemic and Brexit-related disruption have not matched the high hopes raised in the 2016 referendum or the 2019 general election. Boris Johnson’s overheated, boosterish rhetoric looks rather sickly now.

The government can hardly be blamed for a virus that emerged in Wuhan and wrecked lives and the world economy, but the Conservatives can be fairly judged on their near 13 years in office, their response to the various crises the nation has faced, and the priorities they set themselves. A mixed record, then, and latterly characterised by incompetence, chaotic infighting, and too much sleaze.