Sir Keir Starmer produced a disappointing menu of open-ended, generalised, or reheated promises
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Politicians, or rather the campaign shamans paid to guide them, have become convinced that such is the severity of the modern public’s attention deficit disorder that a short list of bullet points is all it can digest.
This practice, now common in general election campaigns, can involve a wallet-sized printed card, as in the case of Tony Blair in 1997, or a slightly less handy megalith, like the “Ed Stone” that in 2015 marked the political resting place of Ed Miliband. Rishi Sunak used the same tactic in mid-term last year with his five pledges. Simple, punchy — and potentially lethal for your credibility if you are too specific and fail to meet your self-imposed metrics, as the prime minister is currently in danger of
