Remember when Sir Keir Starmer was sold to us as, effectively, the anti-Boris? Where Boris was slapdash, Keir would be methodical; where Boris fibbed as easily as breathing, Keir would be truthful as a boy-scout; where Boris was boastful, Keir would be modest; where Boris exuded ambition, Keir would exude dutifulness; where Boris was charismatic, Keir would bore the pants off us; where Boris mumbled schoolroom Latin, Keir would mumble courtroom Latin.
The thing about Boris is that you sort of knew what you were getting
For those of us who thought Boris Johnson – like him personally though we might – ill-suited to being put in charge of so much as a round of drinks, let alone the country, Keir Starmer looked like an agreeable alternative.
Well. Look how that has panned out. Boris had not long been in power when he was mired in a series of feebly venal freebie-snaffling scandals. Keir, too, was caught filling his boots within days of taking power. Boris was famously likened by a senior adviser to a “wonky trolley”, taking off in unexpected directions at a whim; Keir, too, has U-turned left, right and centre. Boris accrued a dysfunctional inner circle of feuding courtiers; Keir, too, accrued a dysfunctional inner circle of feuding courtiers. Boris was notorious for blaming everyone but himself for his difficulties; Keir, as has become clear, is also not such a man as you would wish to turn your back on at a bus stop.
