Keir Starmer
© Off-Guardian Org
Sir Keir Starmer has officially announced his resignation as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom:

Yay, I guess.

There goes our sixth "leader" in ten years, and in comes our seventh.

I know some quarters - on both right and left - will be going full Holy Grail...

Rejoicing
© Off-Guardian Org
But I can't bring myself to care about what is, at absolute best, a PR exercise.

The only real change is that, moving forward, I will likely be italicizing the word "Sir" a lot less.

As always, when there's a leadership change, people will rush to talk about "legacy". But Starmer doesn't have one. He's just sort of there.

The process that started before he arrived carried one while he was there, and will continue after he's gone.

He's not done anything. He never had the power to do anything and never tried to do anything. The Online Safety Act and Social Media Ban will likely be the things he is most remembered for, but - again - they would have happened whether or not he even existed.

That's MPs and politicians the world over, really - "grocer-mentality boys who like to be photographed getting in and out of Daimlers in Whitehall", according to News Benders.

They are hood ornaments and hubcaps. Good for brand recognition and covering up the messy bits, but they go where the engine goes, turn in the direction the wheels point, and the car runs just fine without them.

Starmer was always a bizarre choice for a Labour leader - or any leader really - being so entirely devoid of presence or charisma, having a knighthood, and looking like a sausage in an ill-fitting polyester suit.

His replacement will be Andy Burnham. Sure, there'll be a "leadership" election, and eunuch-faced Wes Streeting will push his case, but he will lose. Burnham is clearly the picked man.

(UPDATE: Between the writing and publishing of this piece, Streeting announced he would not contest the leadership, so Burnham is walking in unopposed.)

Burnham is another soulless void, but he's got a Northern accent and no knighthood, so people may take a little longer to figure out he's not actually in it for the ordinary man on the street.

In his victory speech following the by-election last week, Burnham called for a "new kind of politics".

If that sounds familiar, it's because it was Corbyn's line when he won the leadership election in 2015. The difference is Corbyn meant it.

Which is why he's in the political wilderness now, and every single one of the people he humiliated in leadership contests is either in the cabinet or about to become Prime Minister.

That's what sincerity gets you.

Spoiler - Burnham's "new kind of politics" is going to be very like our old politics...but with a Northern accent.