As the summer subsides and the back-to-school mood takes over, Keir Starmer must be wondering what happened to the holidays. Intensive Ukraine diplomacy followed weeks of protests at migrant hotels – culminating, with Tuesday's Epping court judgment, in the unravelling of the Government's asylum policy.
Meanwhile, Rachel Reeves is very publicly casting round for ways to extract yet more money from hard-pressed taxpayers in her autumn Budget.
If anyone needs the fresh start a new season can bring, it is Starmer and his beleaguered party. My poll finds a huge majority of voters saying they are pessimistic for the future of the country, including nearly two thirds of those who backed Labour last year.
The party's already underwhelming lead on economic management has narrowed dramatically as inflation creeps back up and extra taxes and regulations hurt jobs and growth.
Only half of last year's Labour voters think this Government is any better than the last one, and people are as likely as not to think Starmer will be gone by this time next year – an extraordinary position for a PM who walked into No 10 only last July with a majority of 174.
