Let’s give Keir a chance

I don’t know about you, but I had an odd sort of election. The bits that I thought were going to thrill and excite me did not; and the bits that I thought couldn’t thrill and excite anybody made me feel quite emotional. That is, I gave up on the live coverage at about half two in the morning. Not even the prospect of watching Liz Truss get her cards seemed as appealing as a few hours’ kip. The 1997-style jubilation I might have expected to feel, as a representative of those keen to give Labour a shot at governing, just wasn’t there. 

But the following day, as announcements of ministerial and cabinet posts trickled out, I felt genuinely buoyed up. You may – we may – dislike the ideological slant of some of these appointments. There will be Spectator readers, I know, who will regard the prospect of Angela Rayner as deputy Prime Minister, or David Lammy as foreign secretary, with unmitigated horror.