‘There is nothing bold about Sir Keir Starmer’s five space fillers’

‘A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.’
– Sidney Smith 1771-1845

• A LEAFLET came through my letter box in Kentish Town headed “Labour Rose”.

A plea from the leader of the Labour Party who in return for my support offers five “bold commitments” Labour would seek to achieve should it win the next general election.

Great stuff except there is nothing bold about Sir Keir Starmer’s five space fillers.

Cowardly and insubstantial airy-fairy advertising agency blather, an insubstantial and totally inadequate response to the growing economic and social disaster we are facing, just about sums it up.

Flip the leaflet over, more verbiage from Sir Keir…

However, Camden’s leader, Councillor Georgia Gould has some space.

A while back she proposed raising council tax on better-off households to finance some of the urgent issues the council faces.

This is a good idea, so why no mention of it in Councillor Gould’s bit of the leaflet?

Assets and unearned income have achieved double-digit increases in value over recent years while wages have stagnated.

Increasing tax on the former to pay for vital modernisation of infrastructure and services will help kick-start the recovery and begin rebalancing the economy.

It is the real tough decision that a genuinely bold prime minister would feel compelled to champion.

Who knows, if Sir Keir and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves could be brave and, of course, competent in government Labour may even, in the not-too-distant future, find itself in a position to cut taxes on incomes should it want to.

Alas, this is the truly brave and bold politics today’s Labour Party is too scared to even put into the mix for debate.

Now isn’t that a shame?

DON RYAN, NW1