Keir Starmer and the evil of banality

First, a little story. About three years ago I was given an eccentric but fun assignment between Covid lockdowns – I had to eat my way around the coast of East Anglia. On my gluttonous travels I met an extremely senior retired judge – whose wife now owns a posh boutique hotel in Suffolk. As we ate asparagus and hollandaise in his lovely, sun-dappled garden the amiable ex-beak told me that of all the lawyers who’d ever come before him, Keir Starmer was ‘the cleverest’.

I confess this heartened me as, even back then, it seemed Sir Keir Starmer might become PM, given the Tory government’s hapless yet spendy reaction to the pandemic (and much else). However, I also had slight doubts about this personal verdict as the retired judge was – as he told me – an ardent Remainer.