His plan to stop the boats by sending the Royal Marines onto French beaches fell apart as soon as he had announced it.
The new PM calls for more apprenticeships, but shows no sign of lifting the burdens on the businesses which might provide them.
All politicians like to be photographed at election time pulling a pint of beer, but the man who has stepped forward for the past 30 years as the true champion of the man in the pub is Nigel Farage.
An exhibition of his pictures at the Wallace Collection reveals many of the statesman’s most brilliant qualities.
The scene is starting to be set for an election in which Labour defends the ever growing Welfare State.
It does not matter that we shall have had seven PMs in a decade: repeated failure at length becomes instructive.
Only Boris Johnson had the wit to admit there were arguments for both Remain and Leave.
In this brilliant new history of Germany from 1919-33 we find the weaknesses which latter-day Germans have striven to avoid.
It would be absurd to get rid of Starmer in order to replace him with Streeting, Rayner or Burnham. Nor is the Opposition ready for office.
Streeting has made it much harder for Burnham to disclaim membership of the pro-European Establishment.
In his new history of liberalism Wooldridge finds ample cause for pessimism.
Starmer’s self-righteousness, and refusal to explain why he sent Mandelson to Washington, have become intolerable.
The test for Starmer is whether his government resolve that the humiliation of not having a single deployable Navy ship is not repeated. We must start spending on defence. By starting a war for which we were pitifully unprepared, Trump has at least taught us that lesson.
He does not write well, but there is a large public for his message.
The Chancellor should have seized the initiative by declaring that we cannot go on with the public finances in such a parlous condition.