Keir Starmer gave a formidable speech to the Labour conference today. It was easily good enough to inspire the party’s natural supporters to cut him some slack over the bumpy months ahead.
In doing so, the Prime Minister also clawed back some of the ground lost through the needless mistakes that have afflicted his rookie administration and shifted the dial just a bit from doom-mongering and towards hope for the future.
Starmer’s spirit of doggedness may be the key to explaining how far he has got in life without exhibiting any sign of natural brilliance
While he will never be a Boris Johnson-level natural communicator, Starmer nonetheless has improved his delivery very markedly to the point of it becoming perfectly serviceable. The PM even dealt with a late heckler with aplomb, claiming the chap must have got in with a pass to the 2019 (Corbyn-era) party conference.
This performance uplift brought to mind one of those gruesome life-advice aphorisms which do the rounds on social media from time to time: hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
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