Starmer certainly seems effective in Parliament. But not enough people watch PMQs, and Labour needs someone charismatic to go out on the trail, telling everyone Labour's big and exciting message when they finally release it and enthuse the voters. I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that Starmer is not that person. Which is a shame, because at least he actually is one of the few parliamentarians with a working class background.
I am curious about this lack of vision. I wonder if Labour have just gone away to redo things very, very deep so it's taking a long time, or whether it ise just reluctant to release plans and give the Tories and their lapdog press plenty of years before the next GE to kerbstomp and/or steal it like they've been doing for the last 10 years.
Maybe, but it could also be internal party politics. From the Corbyn administration, I started to appreciate more that Labour is decentralised in a way the Tories aren't (indeed, this was frequently a defence of Corbyn, with at least some validity). Initiatives potentially come from the party machinery such as the NEC rather than the leader, and there is evidence this is the case here: early reports talk of Starmer being asked to support a purge - indicating he may well not have been the originator. He surely has a lot of theoretical influence, but if he is politically weak (and he is, given the poll collapse earlier this year), he may not have sufficient authority to exercise it.
