"Some days you just have to write off. Keir Starmer might have guessed that this was going to be one of those days when he was woken up at 4am to be told that Russia had launched a drone attack through Poland. It was a time to count his minimal blessings. Principally that he wasn't the French prime minister. That is a zero-hours contract job."
"But even Keir can't have been expecting to be thoroughly duffed up by Kemi Badenoch at prime minister's questions. That's just never been part of the script. The whole point of the Tory leader was that she had always been Keir's strongest ally on a Wednesday lunchtime. Guaranteed to miss every trick. Miss every open goal. Only last week she had failed to land a significant blow when Angela Rayner was fighting for her political life."
"You could argue that Keir might have seen this coming. If not at PMQs then at some other time. It was never a matter of if. Only of when. Hubris in waiting. It may have seemed a good idea at the time to send Peter Mandelson to Washington. After all, the prime requirement for a British ambassador was sycophancy. Donald Trump likes nothing more than people who fawn over him."
Keir Starmer was woken at 4am with news that Russia had launched a drone attack through Poland, prompting relief that he was not the French prime minister. Kemi Badenoch, usually ineffective at PMQs, produced a rare, well-prepared, sharply focused performance that threw Starmer off balance and drew unusually enthusiastic cheers from Tory backbenchers. Many insiders expect her to lose the leadership by Christmas despite the momentary success, though she will have a standout highlight to show. Peter Mandelson's appointment to Washington is presented as reflecting ambassadorial sycophancy toward Donald Trump, with Mandelson depicted as habitually fawning over powerful figures.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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