Try as he might to wrestle the agenda away from his own career prospects, the Prime Minister’s getting nowhere. The media focus remains relentlessly on where he’s going wrong and how nigh-on impossible it is for his party to put any of it right. In many ways that’s seriously unfair, but as our Political Correspondent Peter Spencer reports, there’s little sign of the problem going away.
To deal with the Labour leadership crisis first, no one seriously disputes that Keir Starmer’s such a rubbish communicator that he couldn’t persuade a dog to eat a biscuit.
So different from his only real challenger, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who’s already showing great skill in ducking and weaving past all manner of obstacles and keeping on his feet.
Look no further than the elephant trap laid for him by the other player in that game, ex Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
By talking up the idea of getting back into the European Union, something Burham isn’t averse to either, he could have ripped the man’s campaign to shreds on the spot.
Yes, polls show a clear majority of Brits would be up for it, likewise Labour party members.
But before he can ask them to give him the job of Prime Minister, Burnham’s got to win the by-election in Makerfield, which was and still is heavily pro-Brexit.
However, by some impenetrable long-jumper’s magic he’s managed to leap right over that obstacle and cling onto pole position. Just about.
Not that any of it eases the government’s feet from the fire. So what after his landslide election win Starmer went practically overnight from hero to zero? A bunfight for chucking him out is still a terrible look.
Then again, if Burnham loses the by-election the whole thing could just fizzle out.
Streeting still maintains he wants to take Starmer’s job, but it’s far from clear that he’s got the support in parliament to even give it a go. Still less that he’d actually win the vote.
A glimmer of hope there for the Prime Minister? But it’s barely visible, given the mounting tally of questions surrounding the Reform party challenger pitted against Burnham in the by-election.
All very well Nigel Farage nicknaming the chap, Rob Kenyon, his ‘Plucky Plumber’, and writing off as ‘cobblers’ any suggestion that he has undesirable political sympathies.
Nonetheless, the Times reports that in the run-up to the general election he WAS among the forty-one of the party’s candidates who were Facebook friends with a guy called Gary Raikes.
Turns out this Gary is an interesting fellow, as he founded an outfit titled the New British Union, that calls for the launch of a ‘fascist revolution’.
Also, the alternative media site Byline Times reports that the plucky plumber suspended his X account a few weeks ago, but they claim to have accessed hundreds of extreme right wing posts.
And now that mainstream media outlets and the Labour party are homing in on the topic his campaign could yet get derailed. Or at least find its support whittled away. A space to watch.
Meantime, the government’s busy trying to convince us that it’s batting for Britain, doing its utmost to protect us from the worst bits of Donald Trump’s latest gift to the world – his Middle-East adventure.
Must be so maddening for ministers that just as the economy was showing signs of an uptick it can’t fail to go the other way, what with a fifth of the world’s oil and liquid gas supplies stuck in the Strait of Hormuz.
It hasn’t quite happened yet, but food prices are on the way up, likewise energy bills. That’s on top of the pain at the pumps that no motorist can fail to have spotted.
Anyway, ministers are trying to draw attention back to themselves via their efforts at easing the pressure on everyone else.
But already the Chancellor’s plan is playing to mixed houses. A temporary and targeted cut in VAT from twenty to five per cent should see a whole load of nice things being less expensive.
Little treats like theme parks, zoos, cinemas, theatres, soft play areas, kids’ meals in cafes and under-sixteens’ bus rides will suddenly be more affordable.
But while even sympathetic newspapers wonder whether it’ll all be seen as too little too late, the forever hostile Telegraph has already written it off as: ‘A raft of desperate, taxpayer-funded freebies.’
Then there’s Starmer’s precipitously uphill struggle to top the crags created by Russian aggression against its neighbour. Once again, the government’s getting it from all sides.
The Foreign Secretary headed off to a NATO summit on Friday braced for yet more Trumpy-grumpiness over our misgivings about his planned overnight eradication of the Iranian regime.
At the same time she was facing grief from fellow Europeans over Vladimir Putin’s equally non-sudden unseating of the Ukrainian leadership.
And the two are eerily intertwined.
In a further effort to hold back cost-of-living pressures and potential fuel shortages back home, thanks to the Iran barney, the government’s delayed some of its planned oil sanctions against Moscow.
All very well, say critics, including Volodymir Zelenski, but it does give the Russian bear added bite.
So what was Starmer supposed to do then? Just tell people to eat less, stop moaning and leave the car in the garage? The punters would love that.
At the same time, here we see our government’s gaucheness, writ large. It’s almost a like a metaphor for how not to sell a policy.
An adroit operator would have somehow managed to big up the plus points to a degree that suggested the downside was after all a price worth paying.
But in the event the Trade Minister Chris Bryant actually had to apologise for the way it came out, and fess up to the changes having been presented ‘clumsily’. His word, and not an easy one to say.
Of course there is a bit more to politics than just the way you tell ’em. But it sure does help.
Take the way six-year-old Buddy Braley from a farm near Gloucester managed, in a matter of days, to get people to shell out nearly twelve grand for local animal rescue centres.
As their place is tucked in the middle of nowhere, mum and dad weren’t too hopeful when he sat in the rain outside next to a handmade sign that said: ‘Stop here! To feed goats for charity.’
However, that changed when a man passing by was so touched by his explanation that the project was in memory of his beloved dog, who’d died the previous month, that he gave him sixty quid.
‘I cried, my husband cried,’ said the boy’s mother, Abbie. Adding: ‘Buddy was in disbelief because it was a huge amount of money.’
But what happened gave them an idea. As they already posted snippets about their country lifestyle on social media they thought they’d tack on that bit.
Always possible images of the two other pets Buddy had trained to poke their heads through the custom-built cut-out board to eat the food played their part.
So sad that the dog had passed, of course, but Buddy does also love Bella and Bertie. And they are two seriously cute goats.
Watch Peter’s report at peterspencer.org
Peter Spencer has 40 years experience as a Political Correspondent in Westminster, working with London Broadcasting and Sky News. For more of his fascinating musings on the turbulent political landscape, follow him on Facebook & Twitter.