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| Not as much fun as you thought? |
Having long suggested that Team Starmer fully intends to tough it out - and they had plenty of advanced notice and planning time [1] for this crisis, at least - that's how it still seems, & strongly so, at the time of writing. There's only one oven-ready candidate in the wings, with no "anyone but [Wes]" votes against him: our old pick Ed Miliband.
Team S is pursuing what I call the Sierra Strategy when I'm strategising in business. Recall the Ford jallopy of that name? Having had many years of consummate success with its predecessor, the smart rust-bucket Cortina line[2], Marks 1-4, Ford went for a fairly 'bold' new look. The 'jelly-mould' hatchback found immediate disfavour, and despite the usual launch promotions sales were not good.
Ford had a massive call to make: re-skin and rebrand it fairly promptly with as much commercial dignity as possible, or double down. They doubled down with massive corporate determination. Advertising, deep discounts, promotions of all kinds, a smarter Ghia variant that was half-decent - everything in the marketing man's book of tricks. For several years! Dunno what this campaign cost, or how the counterfactual might have played out: but in terms of sheer brute force to get the Sierra into the top 3 or 4 UK best-sellers, they succeeded. And that's Starmer now.
PS, Miliband is sitting there trying to figure his optimum positioning for picking up the crown when it falls. And a coronation is what he wants: no knife-job. My guess? At the critical moment, he offers Starmer Foreign Secretary and a big Euro-push mandate. Kier, we can both make history together ...
PPS If you think Starmer is stonewalling impressively, just watch Trump between now and the mid-terms. He'll be looking at everything from conjuring a genuine crisis in order to call them off, to calling the results void - and calling out the National Guard in every state that returns a Dem.
ND
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[1] E.g. the timing of the King's Speech
[2] The Mk 1 started life as just the plain 'Consul'. Didn't play ideally, so they changed it to 'Consul Cortina' (as opposed to its predecessor the 'Consul Classic'. See, these Ford guys were always sharp with marketing-based solutions.
3 comments:
I'm not seeing him going. Streeting is a Temu Mandelson, Big Ange isn't very popular as a leadership choice, and everyone is hoping for Burnham.
If Miliband finagles himself in as leader, I can see that crashing down before Christmas. He suffers from the leadership equivalent of dysmorphia - dysarchia?
Disasteria?
What is his aim?
Why hang on at all?
He is far too far gone to have some miracle breakthrough save his disastership.
His successes can be countered on the fingers of one finger.
He has been doing it wrong from day one. Annoying every possible cohort of voters. Including his own unions of teachers and doctors.
His instincts are wrong.
His performance is sub par.
His charisma, non existent.
His policies, self defeating.
His methods, unremarkable.
His ideas, unformed.
What does he think will happen if he survives this close call?
When another disaster, of his own, and his chancellor’s own making, occurs,
in 3 months time. When the ‘events, dear boy,’ events continue piling up.
This isn’t a good epoch for this A.I. Persona.
He is a leader who wishes he may live in uninteresting times.
Well, tough luck Kryten. Trump and Xi and Putin and Farage and Polanski are all here today. All happening now.
Like that fool Brown who used all his political favours early on. When the next coup came, he had no more to give.
What does Starmer think will happen? The EU will save him? And Reform voters won’t mind?
He will get all tough and stop the boats. And the greens and the left-left will be pleased?
Just go, you bloody idiot. Once it’s gotten to cabinet ministers resigning, it’s over. If you don’t go on your own date of choice now. It will be on someone else’s a little later. Once they have their tanks fuelled and map of the lawns distributed.
He saw what happened to Boris.
He orchestrated some of it.
So he knows what inevitably happens next.
Even his great Saint Tony Blair could not completely escape it.
Why does Sir TTK not quit while, if he’s not ahead, he’s at least able to leave before the bouncers cut his credit and kick him out the casino.
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