Just read the text of the speech (a lot quicker than watching it
). Definitely some improvements compared to the Corbyn era, not really enough to get me to look seriously at Labour again though.
To my mind:
The good bits: The focuses on crime and on technology, and the mention of putting more emphasis in the NHS on preventative care. Hinting that Tony Blair's Government might have actually (*gasp*) done some good things we can be proud of. And actually talking positively (if a bit vaguely) about patriotism.
The bad bits: Bringing up the usual false nonsense about the Tories being responsible for culture wars. Which is pretty ironic given it's only a couple of days ago that Keir Starmer himself was recorded in an interview basically saying words to the effect that you shouldn't call women women. Complaining about the recent NI increase without offering any idea of how else you can raise the money.
The missing bits: Almost nothing about
how in Government he might achieve any of this vision. Nothing about how any of his promises might be paid for, apart from some vague comments about making taxation fair (which sounds great in principle - the trouble is, in the Labour Party, that's usually a code for,
we'll find someone else we can get to pay for it all). On the plus side, at least there wasn't any of the overt anti-business, them-and-us language of the Corbyn era.
I think though the thing that really killed it for me is the sense that it was all about how the Government can spoon-feed us all into prosperity: There didn't seem to be any understanding that a better society also requires us as individuals to take responsibility for our own lives, rather than just expecting the Government to do everything. To me that's still the fundamental failing of Labour and the left in general, which Keir Starmer doesn't seem to be interested in addressing.
