Keir

 

Sir Keir Starmer, Britain's current prime-minister and the proud leader of our Labour Party was born into a working class family in  1962.  Auspiciously, he was named after Keir Hardie, the first  parliamentary leader of the Labour Party (1906-1908).

Sir Keir married Victoria Alexander in 2007  and they have two teenage children who have been effectively kept away from the often crazed glare of modern publicity.

The Labour Party were voted back into power last summer. In the three years before that election, Sir Keir had done a great job of remodelling the party - rooting out the excesses of left wing extremism to make the party electable once again.

Once a very successful lawyer, he became our country's Director of Public Prosecutions in 2008. In that role, he had many thorny legal cases to handle - including dealing with terrorists from Northern Ireland and elsewhere. In this job, he proved himself to be a great team leader and a dedicated public servant.

Until quite recently, Keir loved playing football and he has always been a keen Arsenal supporter. His love affair with football goes back to his boyhood whereas most Conservative politicians are only pretend supporters - perhaps thinking incorrectly that this might endear them to the general public.

Football is of course a team game in which every club pulls together - including coaching staff, groundsmen, cleaners and last but not least - the players. Keir recognises that in the way that he does politics. It's not all about him. He can only be a good leader with a good team to lead.

Historically, Labour is really the only political party that has ever consciously tried to improve the lot of ordinary men and women. Whereas Labour is proud of its strong links with trade unions, the ruling class - spearheaded by The Conservative Party - frequently try to use this connection as a weapon to beat Labour with.

Little more than six months have passed since Labour came back into power. Of course from the outset, Conservative-leaning media channels have sought to denigrate Labour's best efforts to get a grip on the nation's economic well-being and future prospects. It has not helped that they have had to address the damage caused by the Conservative-led "Brexit" from The European Union.

Last Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer had the exceedingly difficult task of meeting the new American president without vomiting. On the agenda was the Ukraine war and trading relations between our countries. It is widely agreed that Sir Keir walked that difficult tightrope with diplomatic aplomb. However, the following day he had to watch the Ukraine crisis deepen with the metaphorical mugging of President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.

Keir Starmer is a good man, leading this country through troubling times. Unlike the cartoon character known as Boris Johnson, Keir does his homework and seeks  to lead us forward with dignity and professionalism. There will be more ruts in the road ahead and more mud-slinging from right wingers and their newspapers but I believe he has the character, resilience and outlook necessary to deal effectively with future political challenges while always keeping an eye on the well-being of ordinary citizens - the very reason he entered politics in the first place.