Letter: Mistakes show Sir Keir Starmer is out of his depth - but he also lacks both judgment and a vision for the nation
A letter from John Gemmell:
I confess to being very disappointed by Sir Keir Starmer, I had expected far better across the board – oh well, wrong yet again.
The prime minister's mistakes have been both sins of commission and of omission.
From the winter fuel payment fiasco last year to the unfolding scandal around Mandelson, Sir Keir would have received good high-level, private advice not available to the rest of us. But somehow he could not take it.
He should also be receiving sound advice and warnings about his disastrous Diego Garcia deal, giving away strategic British territory in the Indian Ocean whilst paying billions to Mauritius for the privilege.
His stance on this matter is strange and stubborn. It is as if he has been given ‘lines to take’, as civil service-speak has it, and can never deviate from them.
Far worse are the reforms that he has failed to deliver.
Welfare spending should be significantly trimmed, especially sickness and housing benefits, and funds transferred to workers on low incomes.
Additional support, albeit very limited, should go to those in the lower middle of society, as they form its backbone.
Joined-up thinking should be applied to the issue of excessive immigration, and honest debates encouraged about what to do about it.
Sir Keir fails to fully address these challenges.
The prime minister is surely out of his depth, but that is too simplistic. I think that he lacks a real vision for the nation.
The furniture of his mind is not arranged in such a way as to permit him to develop a proud and overarching prospectus for our future.
To be fair, he may be a little shell-shocked. The Labour Left is still coming for him, president Trump is a problem, economic growth is stalled and the quickest fix, moving closer to the EU, is difficult to progress.
In such circumstances, a greater prime minister would chart their course and, if necessary, go down fighting. But Sir Keir's character limitations appear to hold him back.
My greatest concern now is that he will be replaced by someone even worse and much further to the left.
At least the insufferably ambitious Andy Burnham is currently out of the picture.
Looking beyond the next general election, there is a danger that we will see a Refom UK/Conservative coalition, fixing immigration but wrecking the economy, or a returned Labour government, wrecking everything.
John Gemmell, Wem, Shropshire