Just three weeks ago, Sir Keir Starmer was master of all he surveyed. The Labour Party conference in Liverpool was the dictionary definition of message discipline. Everyone from shadow cabinet ministers to ordinary party members appeared in lockstep behind the leader, while the hard-Left was barely a rump. Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel, and the Israeli military’s response, have changed all that.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Manchester Metro Mayor Andy Burnham and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar are three of the most high-profile figures to have called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. In other words, the backlash is not confined to the Corbynite Left. The party’s current position is for a humanitarian pause. But Starmer appears increasingly unlikely to take action against frontbenchers who contradict this position.
Indeed, the pressure is such that some sort of shift now seems inevitable. The challenge then would be to do so in a way that fosters unity without appearing to cave in to the loudest and angriest voices in his party.
Gaza needs aid now
No one is yet calling it a land invasion. But as Hamas engages in fighting with Israeli soldiers inside Gaza and civilians continue to flee southwards, the need for aid has never been greater.
In a call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, US president Joe Biden urged him to “immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of civilians in Gaza”. At present, the convoy of aid is a mere trickle when a torrent is required.
Food, water, fuel and medicine are urgently needed.
Speeding up London
To drive in London or take the bus is an exercise in strategic patience. Indeed, motorists in the capital spent an average of 156 hours sitting in traffic last year, according to INRIX, a transport analytics supplier.
To that end, the Mayor has launched a £10 million investment in the Infrastructure Co-ordination Service, to help utility companies plan work to minimise delays. Transport for London currently liaises with utilities and local authorities to co-ordinate roadworks. The ICS facilitates this by identifying areas where companies could work more closely together in order to avoid having to dig the road up more than once.
According to City Hall, the service has “saved” 1,254 days of roadworks since its launch in 2019. Average bus speeds in the capital have fallen from 9.5 mph to 9.3 mph over the last year. Investment funds that go toward tackling congestion caused by roadworks is money well spent.
