Christopher Nolan’s latest project, The Odyssey, has captivated reviewers and sent audiences back toward Homer’s ancient world of desire, deities and dark enchantment. Its enduring pull, thousands of years after the poet first called upon the Muse, underlines a stubborn truth: costumes, kingdoms and names may alter, but the impulses that drive mankind rarely do.
For a modern example, one need only glance at the grand drama now playing out in British politics. With Andy Burnham increasingly cast by supporters as the country’s next great rescuer and a possible future occupant of No 10, Sir Keir Starmer’s legacy, in my view, is beginning to look rather different from the one he intended.
Starmer may not be remembered primarily for soaring speeches, strategic brilliance or magnetic leadership. Instead, history may judge him as the political Trojan horse that opened the gates to Burnham’s advancing ranks of old-style Seventies socialists.
In Homer’s tale, Odysseus and his men persuaded the Trojans to wheel inside their walls what appeared to be a harmless tribute to Athena, only to reveal the danger hidden within. In similar fashion, Labour convinced the electorate to back a vessel that looked, from the outside, like a sensible answer to national exhaustion — but which, critics would argue, has cleared the route for a socialist takeover.
Starmer’s calm, barrister-like manner was central to that appeal. He managed to reassure voters who would not instinctively choose Labour that he represented competence, stability and a break from what opponents branded years of Conservative disorder. His message reached both urban progressives and weary former Tory supporters, delivering a commanding parliamentary majority, even if it came on a notably weak turnout.
A crucial part of the pitch was the belief that he had the Labour Left safely contained. He suspended and later blocked Jeremy Corbyn after the 2020 Equality and Human Rights Commission report into antisemitism in the party. He placed centrist figures in winnable constituencies and pushed more radical activists to the edges. The overall impression, as one friend who voted for him told me, was that Starmer was a “decent guy” who could steady Britain and put it back on track.
Perhaps he is a decent man — his supporters insist as much. But decency alone is not enough for a prime minister. The essential test of leadership is whether you can command your own MPs, especially the factional firebrands, the Labour equivalent of the “swivel-eyed loons” David Cameron once struggled to manage on the Conservative benches.
It soon looked less as though Starmer had shut the hard Left away and more as though they had him trapped. Measures affecting pensioners, fierce pushback against welfare reform, sweeping tax increases, pressure on business and VAT on private school fees all appeared to undermine his repeated promise to prioritise economic growth. At each turn, he seemed short of either the authority or the will to push back.
Sir Keir Starmer will be remembered not for his oratory, his political acumen or his charisma, but for acting as a political Trojan horse for Burnham’s stealth army of Seventies socialists
He was elected on false pretences. And now he has been usurped by a man whose politics are completely out of kilter with what most of the British electorate wants – and who, had he been required to win an election himself, would have been rejected as Corbyn was in 2017 and 2019.
Because the truth is that Britain is not a hard-Left country – it is a land of political moderates, of small-business strivers, savers, home-owners and entrepreneurs who want to enjoy the fruits of their labours without being sucked dry or lectured on wokery and political dogma.
People are fed up with chancers being rewarded for nothing. They are tired of being told to go to the back of the queue for services they have paid for. And they are sick of being squeezed until the pips squeak.
They need Burnham’s socialist utopia like a hole in the head. They don’t want more welfare, more immigration, a bigger tax burden. That is why Reform has gained such popularity, and that is why, despite her party’s woes, Kemi Badenoch’s clear-sighted Conservatism has made her the only party leader with a positive poll rating.
Burnham has so far refused to account for himself either in Parliament or to the Press, save to declare himself the saviour of British politics and airily tell taxpayers that they are going to have to do ‘a little bit more’.
So the only way a man like him can get his hands on the levers of power is by stealth – and cunning. The coup that Burnham has pulled off does at least tell us one thing: he is a player. Where Starmer showed himself to be unsuited to the cloak-and-dagger style of parliamentary politics (one thing that stands in his favour) and always played a straight bat, Burnham clearly has a Machiavellian streak.
How else could he have plotted such a power grab? Even Starmer’s greatest detractors don’t quite know why he had to go. Despite a series of mistakes, including the Peter Mandelson affair, there is no massive scandal, no £5million of undeclared donations or evidence of misconduct in public office.
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He has gone because he has finally served his purpose: to usher in the armies of hard-Left ideologues in Labour who have been hiding in the darkness and who are now preparing to unleash political hell on the unsuspecting – and trusting – voters of Britain.
Claudia’s so candid
Claudia Winkleman hosting an episode of The Claudia Winkleman Show
All credit to Claudia Winkleman for admitting that she wasn’t really enjoying hosting her own chat show, saying it made her ‘too nervous’. Most people would have made up some waffle about wanting to spend more time with their family, or similar. By being honest about her decision, she only reminds us why we love her.
They say Labour has a women problem, but surely releasing thousands of convicted rapists from prison early is taking it a bit far, even by their poor standards?
That’s no way to treat a widow
Readers may remember that my father died just over a month ago. As part of the inevitable ‘deathmin’, my mother needed to inform his various state pension providers. First, she rang the Italian pensions people. She explained the situation, and the lady was incredibly kind and helpful. She expressed her condolences, asked how my mother was coping, and detailed the process by which she could submit the information. Next, my mother rang the pensions people here. She explained that her husband had recently died, and she was in the process of sorting his things out. There was a long pause. Then, ‘Well, you’re not getting any money from us.’ Not, ‘I’m so sorry, here’s what you need to do,’ or even just, ‘Let me take his details.’ Just a nasty, unkind and frankly unnecessary dismissal of a grieving widow who has just lost her husband of 60 years. What the hell has become of us?
The easiest way to resolve the row over whether grooming gang ringleader Shabir Ahmed should be deported to his native Pakistan is to put him back in jail and make him serve his full sentence. This revolting excuse for a human being was released last month after serving just 14 years, having been jailed in 2012 for 22 years for 30 child rape offences and 19 years for child sex offences and trafficking. He’s 73: if he just serves out his term, with any luck what to do with him when he gets out will no longer be an issue.
The plight of Piddingtonians
Of course, not all asylum seekers are dangerous – but with reports of cases such as this on the rise, can you really blame the Piddingtonians for taking matters into their own hands?
The 350 residents of Piddington in Oxfordshire have reacted to Home Office plans to house 1,250 single male asylum seekers, a move that would overwhelm the village and totally change the nature of the area, by voting for independence.
No doubt they will be denounced as Nimbys but having lived in the same road as a hotel full of these young men and seen how their behaviour impacts their environment, I understand their concerns.
Truth is, many of them come from cultures that have very different attitudes, especially towards young girls and women – and sadly there are too many instances where those attitudes have led to violence.
A case in point is the three men – Iranian Abdulla Ahmadi and Egyptians Ibrahim Alshafe and Karin Al-Danasurt – sentenced last week for brutally raping a woman on Brighton beach.
Of course, not all asylum seekers are dangerous – but with reports of cases such as this on the rise, can you really blame the Piddingtonians for taking matters into their own hands?
Isn’t it interesting how the Duchess of Sussex and her two children managed to come to the UK without being spotted? Just goes to show that if someone truly wants privacy, it’s perfectly possible to have it.
