00:00The Labour government's chaos gets crazier by the day, and the bond markets get ever
00:04more nervous.
00:05Two years after Keir Starmer won a huge majority by promising to break with Tory chaos, he is
00:11offering us chaos of his own.
00:12Strong and stable has become weird and wacky.
00:15Dull and boring has become complete anarchy.
00:18Does this mean that centrist solutions are impossible to deliver?
00:21Or is it a comment on Sir Keir Starmer's personal incompetence?
00:25Nigel Farage's Reform Party was the big winner in the recent local government elections.
00:31The Green Party did almost as well.
00:33Kemi Badenoch's Tories did almost as badly as the Labour Party.
00:37Yet if you look abroad, you can see that centrists are not only addressing the key problems that
00:42confront us today, but are also winning popularity in doing so.
00:45Mark Khan's Liberal Party has addressed three big problems.
00:49He's increased the supply of energy, he has reduced the amount of illegal immigration,
00:54and he's created a more friendly business environment, and he's got more popular in the process.
00:59He's won three recent by-elections, and he's attracted conservative defectors to his party,
01:04so his majority has increased.
01:07In Australia, Anthony Albanese's Labour Party has been offering big, bold, centrist solutions
01:13to tough problems, and won re-election in the last election by a record majority.
01:18And in San Francisco, the new mayor Daniel Laurie has been cleaning up the streets,
01:22getting rid of the drug markets, restoring good government, and his popularity rating
01:27is at a record level.
01:28And that's at a time when President Trump's popularity rating is in the toilet.
01:32The problem with Starmer is not centrism.
01:34The problem with Starmer is Starmer.
01:37It's his failure to articulate bold policies, follow through with those bold policies.
01:42What he does instead is to save things, backtrack, dither, delay, and achieve nothing.
01:47The possible leadership candidates will make a huge mistake if they conclude that centrism is dead,
01:53and that the only solution is to move yet further to the left.
01:56This will damage an already fragile economy, create yet more political chaos,
02:02and lead perhaps to mayhem.
02:04The solution to Britain's problems lies in a revived centrism, not yet another leap in the dark.
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