Two accounts of the same story? McGuire and Pogrund’s Get In charts the long march of Starmer’s rehabilitation of Labour, and Ross and Wearmouth’s
‘Landslide’ tells the story of the 2024 Election.
Being contemporary journalism rather than historical research, both rely heavily on willing informants – and it shows. Starmer’s progress is much influenced by the ever-present Morgan McSweeney who seems blessed with a permanent halo. It is also laced with criticisms of the Labour leader. The media has already enjoyed repeating Angela Rayner’s alleged comment that Starmer was incapable of running a bath, and others’ claims that he was more of a HR Manager than a Leader.
The Election story, in contrast, emerges as a trouble-free procession of the boringly competent towards power – relinquished by an accident-prone but well-meaning Conservative party doomed to failure from the outset. ‘Landslide’ is stronger on analysis/ reflection than on the narrative itself and its concluding pages acknowledges the role of luck in politics! Nigel Farage helped considerably!
Both books are worth reading
– if only to understand better how the Labour Government of today sees the world and addresses its challenges.
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