DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Yet one other Labour pledge bites the mud

Setting out his ‘Five Missions for a Better Britain’ early last year, top of Sir Keir Starmer’s agenda was an unequivocal pledge. ‘We will deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7,’ he said. No ifs, no buts.

He may have thought it quite a straightforward task. After all the Tories had managed it. How hard could it be?

What a difference a few months in government makes. Not only has he now had to ditch that flagship promise, but the signs are that Britain is headed for a sharp downturn.

The new PM’s relentless talking down of the economy, a disastrous Budget and reckless net-zero and electric vehicle targets that are already costing thousands of jobs, have sent business morale crashing.

The Institute of Directors Economic Confidence Index is close to a record low, with investment, employment, export, revenue and wage expectations all falling.

By saddling firms and workers with an extra £40billion in taxes in the Budget, the Government is strangling growth.This may be the worst Labour disaster since July 4, but it is by no means the only one. 

Setting out his ‘Five Missions for a Better Britain’ early last year, top of Sir Keir Starmer’s agenda was an unequivocal pledge. ‘We will deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7,’ he said. No ifs, no buts

The farmers protest at Westminster last month. With the fleecing of pensioners, farmers, charities, universities and many others and you have the impression of a party unprepared and ill-equipped for government

More than 20,000 migrants have now crossed the Channel on Sir Keir’s watch, making a mockery of the boast that he would ‘smash the gangs’.

Add to this the fleecing of pensioners, farmers, charities, universities and many others and you have the impression of a party unprepared and ill-equipped for government.In the face of rock-bottom approval ratings, Sir Keir hopes this week to ‘relaunch’ his error-strewn administration with a major speech. 

But without credible strategies to grow the economy, tackle migration and cut the ballooning welfare budget, it’s hard to see it working.

As leading pollster Sir John Curtice puts it, Sir Keir has shown ‘absolutely no ability to construct a narrative’. 

As a result his government ‘lacks a story of what it’s about’.Sadly, a speech full of platitudes and management-speak is unlikely to change that perception.

Lowering defences

Secretary of State for Defence John Healey. While ministers dither and delay, the skies darken, with the resurgence of the war in Syria adding yet another threat to the international order

The news that the Government won’t even announce a timetable for raising defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP makes one wonder how serious Labour really is about national security?

In opposition, there was plenty of rhetoric about their admiration and support for the Armed Forces. Yet now in power and with money involved, they beat the retreat.

While ministers dither and delay, the skies darken, with the resurgence of the war in Syria adding yet another threat to the international order. The Romans said: ‘If you want peace, prepare for war.’ Britain ignores that maxim at its peril.

Oxford dunces

We should perhaps be reassured that Oxford University allowed its Union Society to debate the Israel-Gaza conflict. Faced with such a divisive issue, many universities would have deemed the event too much trouble and banned it.

A debate at the Oxford Union titled, ‘This house believes Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide,’ passed after the chamber descended into chaos on Thursday evening

However, the debate itself was far from edifying. The October 7 massacre was hailed as ‘heroic’ and the House backed the proposition that Israel is ‘an apartheid state responsible for genocide’.

These are words that should not be bandied around so frivolously. White South Africa was an apartheid state. The Nazis, Hutus in Rwanda were genocidal. Israel is a democracy involved in what it sees as a war for survival.

One might have hoped – vainly as it turns out – supposedly clever Oxford students would know the difference.