And, so it happens again, yet another Prime Minister resigns and all hopes resting on a new one. As always, there will be plenty of people celebrating the news that Keir Starmer has decided to throw in the towel (even many Labour supporters).

I think history will judge him a little better than his opinion poll ratings right now. I was struck by his resignation speech as having a little more substance than other previous incumbents,
particularly Liz Truss who managed to set the bar about as low as it is possible to go.

I always found Sir Keir as particularly uninspiring, including the robotic manner he delivers a speech. There were many of us who weren’t quite so worried about his lack of charisma, arguing that we simply needed a period of stability and common sense after the Tory years of chaos.

However, I think the job specification for Prime Minister does involve the ability to impress as a leader and this was his greatest failing and it is probably true to observe that you can only make so many U-turns before credibility is lost.

Looks pretty obvious today that Burnham has all the momentum and that he will be installed as the new Labour Leader and Prime Minister as early as next month. The chances of him calling a General Election to firm up his mandate are, in my opinion, “zero”.

No doubt we will get the usual calls for him to do so from opposition MP’s who sometimes forget that their own party was similarly guilty of not doing so.

There will be meetings, as I write this, in Tory HQ, working out attack lines such as “He only really wants to stand up for the North”.

I am no Labour supporter, but I always wish all new Prime Ministers the very best of luck. It is in all our interests that we are governed well.

It is in the nature of things that decisions already taken bear fruit in the future. There is a bit of luck involved. The merry go round stops every so often and they all find ourselves sometimes benefiting from good news or cursing their luck by events.