Around 2010 a friend of mine made noises about getting into politics. They said they’d join the tory party not because they sided with them on policy or liked their ethos, but because they’d be “winning for a long time so that was the only way to have any impact”. At the time it put me off my friend, but really I should have taken this as a lesson about where politicians come from and their motivation. Starmer just seems like a prime example of someone who sees the game as more important than the people of this country. Is that definitionally true of “centrists”? I can’t believe a principled person can look at the state of the nation and think. Yes, we need to very urgently make no major changes.