6 hours ago
10
Polly Toynbee (It’s tragic that a decent PM will be brought down by Mandelson’s sleaze – but it’s a matter of when, not if, 6 February) says she cannot “understand the reason for this level of public dislike for a good and serious man”. Keir Starmer’s failure of judgment over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US is just the last straw.
Starmer’s accumulating failures have resulted from his complete lack of vision; there has been no inspiring “this is the kind of society we are going to create”. He has been leading the nation into a strategic vacuum. When the horses do not know which way to face, they all pull in different directions. No wonder that the carriage does not progress.
Never mind, say the prime minister’s supporters – he is so sound tactically, with his lawyer’s background, all the day-to-day decisions are in good hands. The mess of Mandelson’s appointment gives the lie to that. Starmer is as feeble tactically as he is philosophically.
Anthony Stamp
Wormingford, Essex
Could the level of public dislike for Keir Starmer come down to the continuing, and even strengthening, of Tory austerity? Continuing arms sales to a state committing genocide? Restricting the right to protest? Reneging on the pledges that got him elected as leader of the Labour party? Appearing to have no political vision or principles other than being in power just for the sake of it? Did you miss some of these, Polly?
Antony Dowd
Nottingham
In my time as a non-executive director of an NHS trust, I quickly learned the difference between being reassured and being assured. The former involves taking people’s word that all is well; the latter involves gathering evidence that it is in fact the case. I am surprised that this basic principle of effective management doesn’t seem to apply in the vetting of our ambassadors. How many other important appointments in public life are currently made on trust, I wonder?
James Lindesay
Leicester
It is disappointing that few are appreciating the UK’s good fortune to have as our prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, a man of integrity, decency and undoubted skill in manoeuvring this country through the maelstrom of disruption, malign indifference and ignorance emanating from the White House orange Voldemort. And why is it so little mentioned in the media coverage of the prime minister’s recent difficulties that most of the current scandal is precisely the consequence of an admittedly ill-advised choice of ambassador, when under considerable pressure to deal with the anticipated and now fully realised horrors of such global disturbance caused by the corrupt and malevolent president of the United States?
Wendy Jenrick
Sheffield
If the Mandelson affair does unseat Keir Starmer, this will be the very worst of Peter Mandelson’s tawdry legacies. We stand to lose the first prime minister for many years who was not in politics for personal glory or gain. An honourable, intelligent and very hardworking man who inherited a shambolic situation on many fronts and has not deserved the constant sniping from the press that has undermined him from the very start of his term of office.
Kirsten Cubitt Thorley
Sheffield
