The backdrop to the upcoming domestic story, the Conservative Party Conference, could hardly be more grisly. Or closer to home, given that last week’s antisemitic atrocity causing multiple deaths and injuries took place only a few miles from where the gathering is taking place. But as our Political Correspondent Peter Spencer reports, the attack is only one aspect of a broader picture of bloody confrontation.
While what happened at the Heaton Park Synagogue just outside Manchester was unforgivable, it was also part of a cycle of violence sparked by the Hamas-led mass murder spree of two years ago.
Grotesque though that was, the Israeli government has in revenge slaughtered nearly sixty times as many Palestinians. Mostly women and children. As part of a policy now classified by the United Nations as genocide.
And, alongside razing Gaza City to the ground, they’re blocking deliveries of food aid to displaced and starving people. Little surprise that their thwarting of Green activist Greta Thunberg’s flotilla has provoked international outrage.
Little surprise also then that the hideous scenario unfolding two thousand miles away has spilled over to Britain’s streets. After protest after protest, the personal safety Britain’s Jewish community is now under threat.
Condemnation by political leaders of the synagogue attack and the terrifying potential aftermath is right and proper. But also, all too possibly, a waste of breath in the face of the unfolding blood feud.
Of course we’re all crossing everything that the latest American-led peace drive might finally end the conflict. But we’re in desperately fragile territory.
Meantime, and this is absolutely not a tasteless dig at Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, she can hardly fail to be disappointed that in the circumstances her party conference hasn’t exactly been hogging the headlines.
Doubly so as she’s been on such a mission to finally get her voice heard.
That said, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that in the course of a flurry of radio interviews she revealed astonishing ignorance about the attitude of people in Northern Ireland to Brexit.
Fears of what impact leaving might have on its ever sensitive border with the Republic of Ireland led to a decisive vote to remain. You’d think that anyone who knows anything would be well aware of that. But she apparently wasn’t.
Nor it seems is she too fussed about infuriating a significant slice of her voter base by saying she wants to ditch the Green agenda set out by one of her own predecessors, Theresa May.
Given that a YouGov survey shows that only one in five of us thinks we’re trying too hard to cut carbon emissions, while a third of us reckon we’re not doing enough, you wonder if she’s done her homework properly.
Still, nil desperandum says the ever cheerleading Telegraph, also known as Torygraph, there’s a positive blitz of new policy announcements to look forward to this week.
Hopefully, from Badenoch’s point of view, rather more broadly palatable ones, given not only the party’s dire poll rating but also that from early next month its rules say she could even face a vote to chuck her out.
Not like she’s alone there, mind, bearing in mind the grief that the Prime Minister’s been getting from large chunks of his own tribe, as well as perpetual needling from Nigel Farage and his Reform outfit.
Still, it seems that when Starmer made it to his party’s shindig he took a tip from the French General Ferdinand Foch, who once remarked: ‘My centre is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent. I am attacking.’
And there’s a broad consensus among the less partisan section of the media that he did pretty well at the conference, successfully managing to sound like a person instead of an epiglottal dalek. For a change.
Certainly, in his big set piece speech he managed to make a clear and at times passionate case for tolerance and decency, arguing we should turn away from the politics of grievance that he accused Farage of espousing.
The Daily Star, in its inimitable way, rejigged his suggestion that we’ve reached ‘a fork in the road’ under the headline, excuse language: ‘Fork You, Nige!’ Naughty. But nice.
It was, nonetheless, a delicate balancing act.
Starmer had no qualms about describing Farage’s hardline immigration policies, including the abolition of the rights for migrants to permanently settle in the UK, as racist and immoral.
But this did leave the door open for Farage to taunt him back, with the claim that Sir Keir was being every bit as rude to the millions of people who’re minded to make him the next Prime Minister.
Partly in response to that, Starmer’s also announced several measures of his own to tighten the rules, notably surrounding the current rights of both legal immigrants and asylum seekers to bring in their families.
A little confusing, perhaps, for voters seeking a clear steer from Labour.
Not that that in any way discouraged Farage from claiming that the racist label pinned to his policy threatens the safety of his party’s councillors and campaigners.
Or, as his close associate Zia Yusuf luridly put it: ‘We’ve seen the most extraordinary campaign over forty-eight hours to demonise Nigel. And he is absolutely inciting violence against him.’
Yes but hang on a minute, you might say. Wasn’t it Farage himself who spent the entire summer upping the ante on the immigration debate?
Ok, he didn’t actually demand bare-knuckle demos outside asylum seekers’ hotels, but he certainly said plenty to ramp them up. Week after week. Relentlessly.
Of course now that the weather’s turned maybe he thinks we’ll have forgotten all that. But, for those who haven’t, the word chutzpah springs to mind.
Ultimately, however, it could yet backfire on him.
The findings of a poll conducted by the pressure group Hope Not Hate suggests that two-thirds of us see our communities as peaceful and friendly. And four in five enjoy mixing with people of other ethnicities, religions and backgrounds.
So all those tough guys waving flags, shouting, throwing things around and attacking police officers may not be quite as representative of the nation as they’d have us believe.
Not like Starmer’s exactly got the punters on his side either, given that the pollster Ipsos has found him to be the least popular prime minister since they opened for business half a century ago.
Could be the trick is not to be a person at all.
Research before the last election suggested that Larry the Downing Street Cat seemed to be a potentially bigger winner than either Starmer or his Tory rival Rishi.
And certainly these days pet influencer agencies are big bucks.
Take the runaway success story Nala, who has the Guinness World Record for the biggest feline following on Instagram. Four and a half million.
Still, with just under three million, Don’t Stop Meowing isn’t doing too badly. And, with a tally of something over two million, there are no complaints either from Venus the Two Face Cat.
An inspiration there for our wannabe Prime Ministers? Just fess up to not being one to say what you mean, and it’s in the bag. Maybe.
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.