I think Blair was a mixed bag. Illegal war, best NHS in my lifetime, student loans, privatisation, expansion of the welfare state. A mixed bag at best. I wasn't happy with him. But at this point I would bite your hand off to get that government back. They knew what they were doing, and they pretended to give a shit about the people they governed. That's six steps up from where we are now. Corbyn would have been better but we don't have that choice anymore do we.
Starmer's purge of the left is infuriating though.

This is just not scaring the horses, the Tories are kicking themselves in the balls so hard as their policies come home to roost, it's not the time to be radical.

Boring and effective is the way to power. Everyone's had enough of psychodrama politics.

I don't think it's so much ideological (though I don't mind if it is) as a case of promoting those with experience of government. Inevitably, that means people who worked under Blair and Brown.

I had such high hopes for Starmer - he was a Human Rights lawyer, he was in Corbyn's cabinet , and he looked to be more of a politician willing to play the game of politics than Corbyn. And yet... And yet...

This is the best summary I could come up with:

When Keir Starmer put the final touches to his shadow cabinet reshuffle over the summer recess, his thoughts were not just on who would help propel Labour into government at the next election, but who could run the country if they are successful.

Senior MPs on the soft-left of the party, however, are concerned that with the demotion of Lisa Nandy to the international development brief and Jonathan Ashworth’s move to a more political role, the Labour left has been sidelined from the big policy beats.

Starmer, with his years running the Crown Prosecution Service, has governance experience in abundance, bolstered by bringing in the former top civil servant Sue Gray as his chief of staff.

Pat McFadden, who has worked for Labour since the 1980s and was Blair’s political secretary, is a key figure, taking on the national campaign coordinator role in which he will lead the party’s election strategy group.

As well as promoting experienced operators, Starmer also had to make sure he got what some Labour MPs have called “the Angie question” right, after the explosive fallout of a previous reshuffle in which he tried to demote her but ended up having to smooth things over by giving her an even bigger role.

With a mandate of her own from party members, she is unsackable, but has made no secret of her desire for Starmer to confirm she would also be his deputy prime minister if he ends up in No 10.

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