Starmer has mastered the speeches about Tory ‘chaos’ and ‘decline’, but Britain needs hope – where is it?

‘Whether a switch to slow politics has long-term appeal to an electorate that has got used to manic governments is something we have yet to find out.’ Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

To win power, opposition parties need to say something compelling about the status quo. This isn’t necessarily as easy as just advocating “change”, the word Labour has chosen to emphasise in the speeches and backdrops of its big election events and on the side of its battlebus.

Promise too much change, as the party did in 2019, and voters either won’t believe you can make it happen, or will be put off by the potential disruption. Promise too little change, as Labour did at the 2015 election, and voters will remain unengaged.