Starmer would be very unwise to announce any great policies until a general election is certain. The Conservatives are nothing if not agile and they will claim any popular policy as their own. Labour are no doubt having their own internal conversation about what it takes to get elected.
There is still a radical element that would be all for wrapping themselves in red flags, calling each other comrade, singing socialist anthems at conferences and championing the workers in their eternal struggle against the bosses….Their deadly enemies are, of course, the besuited Blairites who actually managed to get elected.
Starmer treds a difficult path, leading a party that is unsure of its own purpose and identity, never mind a vision for the country.
I hope this will change before thr next general election. It may come sooner that the two years. The new PM, Liz Truss, will have to call one if she is to get the authority she needs to lead the party by winning a general election.
So how long will she wait? Six months? A year? Or the full term?
The sea of economic troubles facing the UK is daunting. She will be hard pressed to hold onto the Red Wall seats Johnson won on the back of Brexit. That issue has passed and now we are into bread and butter economic issues. No amount of rhetoric and waffle will impress the poor facing a winter of poverty.
Will Truss rise to the task and show leadership? I have my doubts.
Boris was no Churchill. Truss is no Thatcher.