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The End of Sensible Politics: How Crisis Merchants Seized the Keys to Power
In which we examine how political salvation increasingly requires hitting rock bottom first
The trouble with being sensible, as Jimmy Carter discovered to his eternal cost, is that it makes for terrible theatre. Last week, I found myself in a pub as Keir Starmer’s latest economic speech played on the TV above the bar. Not a single head turned upward — not even when he unveiled what should have been headline-grabbing plans for British industry. The parallels with Carter’s presidency feel almost too on-the-nose to mention, but here we are.
Consider Keir Starmer, our very own heir to Carter’s crown of competence, methodically laying out perfectly reasonable policies to a nation that appears to be yearning for something rather more explosive. The energy in the room during his speeches matches that of a provincial building society’s annual general meeting. The ghost of Carter’s malaise speech haunts every carefully crafted syllable.
But here’s where things get properly interesting. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, British households have seen their real disposable income drop by an average of £2,100 since 2020 — a figure that would traditionally spark the kind of revolutionary fervor that makes historians reach for their quills. Yet somehow, we remain stuck…
