What a great editorial (The Guardian view on Starmer’s trust crisis: it is unlikely to be managed away, 13 February). Your statement that the prime minister has “learned nothing and forgotten nothing” sums up much of his and our present situation. He was put where he is now by apparatchiks who failed to suggest that without any vision he would be at the mercy of people who would tug him to and fro – which they have. This weakness – which was shared by Boris Johnson, and why Dominic Cummings called Johnson “the Trolley” – means few people have any reason to trust him.
That Starmer’s judgment is flawed is demonstrated by the number of U-turns that he has been forced to make. I heard somebody on Radio 4 saying that Starmer “emanates blandness”. On the benches behind him are many stronger people. He needs to be ditched before the country is totally shrouded in gloom.
Juliet Solomon
Frome, Somerset
