Daniel Chandler aims to bring new values to British politics – so how will that work out?

As this country stumbles towards a Labour victory at the next election, the mood on the left remains subdued. The problem is not Keir Starmer’s personal charisma, achingly absent though that may be. No, it lies much deeper than that, in what Tony Benn liked to call the ishoos. The cry goes up from focus groups across the land: what does Labour really stand for? What are its Big Ideas? Does anyone know?

Well, perhaps they will quite soon. Step forward Daniel Chandler, a Cambridge-educated policy adviser and think-tanker who is now completing a doctorate at the LSE. The pre-publicity for his new book, with glowing eulogies from Thomas Piketty, Amartya Sen, Rowan Williams and other grandees, plus those well-known political theorists Zadie Smith and Stephen Fry, suggests that (a) he is very well connected; (b) this is a truly compelling work; (c) the psychology of wish-fulfilment has turned this book into an answer to a prayer.