Starmer’s reno of the UK is going brilliantly. If you don’t count the walls falling down | Marina Hyde

Nothing says you’ve lifted the mood of the nation like having to haul your chancellor to a photocall at a ‘wellbeing centre’

Well, British politics has served up another week of compellingly packaged action. Like Drive to Survive, but for clown cars. Leave it to “no-drama Starmer” to come up with the only thing weirder and more awful than watching the chancellor of the exchequer sob on the frontbench – wheeling her out a mere 22-and-a-half hours later for an unscheduled appearance at a wellbeing centre(!), where Rachel Reeves had to get her happy face on and pose for selfies.

The whole thing gave Keir Starmer the feel of one of those remorseless boyband managers who reacts to one of their young charges having a breakdown by getting them a special injection and shoving them straight back out on stage the next night. I think you can probably do it with a member of Take That or 5ive or whoever, and only run the risk of them turning on you in a documentary decades later. But is it a vibe you want at the heart of the team in charge of the world’s sixth largest economy?

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...