Election year is living down to expectations. The Tories are flailing around in the hope of stumbling across a strategy. The Liberal Democrats have yet to remind anyone of their existence. Meanwhile, Labour’s primary contribution has been to drop its previous commitments on green investment. This decision has been interpreted as part of a wider electoral strategy to give the Tories no targets whatsoever. This might be the aim, but it’s seriously over-cautious. Like a bullied child, Labour figures are so badly scarred by memories of 1992 and 2015 that they prefer running away to the risk of being punched again. But the current situation bears no relation to those elections.
John Major and David Cameron were more popular than Neil Kinnock and Ed Miliband, and more trusted on the economy. Rishi Sunak is plumbing depths of unfavourability lately reached only by Liz Truss. The Conservative brand is trashed. At this stage, Keir Starmer could spend the next eight months on a beach doing sudokus and he’d still win.