Drill into the policy, ignore the puffery: this is a Starmer manifesto more than a Labour one

‘In the pantheon of Labour leaders, Starmer has made clear who he is not: Jeremy Corbyn.’ Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Not long before the 1979 general election the Labour prime minister, Jim Callaghan, privately and soberly predicted his own downfall. “There are times, perhaps once every 30 years, when there is a sea change in politics,” he told an adviser. “It then does not matter what you say or do. There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of. I suspect there is now such a sea change – and it is for Mrs Thatcher.”

Sunny Jim had heard the sigh of history. Soon after came the largest electoral swing in postwar history, with Margaret Thatcher boasting a bigger share of the popular vote than any Tory leader since. Labour was kept at bay for 18 years.