Before we begin, a brief message from me. After exactly three years and just shy of 700 editions, I'm so pleased to announce that the West End Final newsletter has passed 100,000 subscribers. You couldn't even fit that inside the Emirates Stadium and Stamford Bridge combined. Thanks for making it happen.
Conventional wisdom (as well as Napoleon Bonaparte, I guess) dictates that you should "never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake". Win, lose or draw, today is set to be a difficult day for the prime minister, as he seeks to unite a fractious party around his 'emergency' Rwanda legislation. Given that, why did the leader of the opposition choose it to deliver a major address?
Partly, it came down to symmetry. It is four years to the day since the 2019 general election, in which Jeremy Corbyn led Labour to its worst defeat since 1935. Starmer wanted to draw a contrast not just with the present Conservative government, but with the battered state of the Labour Party when he assumed the leadership.
Yet this intervention (a silly piece of journalese) was about more than anniversaries. First, it demonstrated a level of confidence that Starmer could help, not harm himself by being visible on a day like today. And second, that he recognises he ought to, given that many voters remain unsure about what he stands for and therefore what he would do with power.
By the standards of a Starmer speech, I thought it was quite interesting and even, at times, revealing. Though full disclosure: flu for the last week has reduced me to staring at a wall for hours on end, so my threshold for what I find interesting is perhaps temporarily lower than normal.
There was the usual Starmer bingo. Cross a box or if you're feeling adventurous take a shot every time he mentions his father was a toolmaker. This is not a criticism, by the way. Repetition is critical to get any message across, while Starmer's modest background genuinely makes him an outlier not just in recent British politics but Labour too.
There was Starmer the institutionalist: the man who, unlike the radical Tories, will stick to the rule of law. Starmer the safe pair of hands: the man who will govern a country that the Conservatives have abandoned. Starmer the emoter: the man who really understands what it's like to get the sinking feeling that comes from another bill in the post.
On immigration itself, Starmer was a little woolly. A firm 'no' to Rwanda for legal, practical and moral reasons, but his alternative of "doing the basics better" isn't exactly a five-point plan. Then again, the bloke is sitting on a 20-point lead. Why the heck would he volunteer greater clarity?
Perhaps the moment of peak ambition appeared when the Labour leader sought to turn Brexit to his advantage. Starmer admitted that yes, while he voted Remain (didn't he also campaign vigorously for a second referendum?) Brexit was not only safe in Labour's hands, but that right-thinking Leavers should in fact vote for his party. Why? Because the Brexit vote was about more than our trading relationship with the EU, he says:
"It was a vote to say our country has got its priorities wrong. A vote for democratic control. But also, for public services you can rely on. Opportunities for the next generation. Communities you can be proud of. And an economy that works for people like you."
For pure political gumption, it's tens across the board. The question is, will Leave voters in marginal seats agree?
All that's left is a few stray observations. Oddly, Keir Starmer doesn't know what the government's majority is. He referred to 80, but the Tories currently have a working majority of 56 seats, owing to all those by-elections they have lost since the general election.
The other point, and I've stolen this from someone but can't recall the source, is that now this parliament has passed the four-year mark, Sunak can no longer be said to have called an 'early' election no matter when it happens. From this moment onwards, we're going long.
Finally, some quick searching finds that practically no two news outlets have reported on Starmer's speech with the same headline. Proof of breadth and nuance, or the absence of a clear through line?
Today's newsletter has been self-indulgently long, so I'll just leave you with an important public service announcement: how not to be a cheese bore this Christmas.
Housekeeping: Life ambition unlocked – the Football Cliches podcast, a personal favourite of mine, took up my comparison in Friday's newsletter of the Elizabeth line with Mesut Özil. Listen for yourself at 13 mins, 50 seconds.
