The idea that Labour's problems can be solved by a change of face at the top are deluded. If Corbyn were leader, Lab would be getting thumped even harder in Hartlepool - they held it in 2019 because of a huge Brexit Party vote. But Starmer's been no magic bullet, clearly

The problem is what Starmer and Corbyn have in common, not their differences. Indulgence of ID politics and obsession with 'diversity'; disaffection from mainstream provincial public opinion; being utterly London-centric etc. It's a long-term, deep problem that began under Blair

Blair started it; Corbyn turbocharged it & added many other problems; Starmer's patchy efforts to address it are half-hearted.

The only way a leader could alter it would be if they were prepared to challenge Labour's internal liberal-cosmopolitan-Londoncentric consensus

But structurally this is nearly impossible, because Lab is dominated at all levels by people so steeped in that consensus that it's like the air that they breathe. Single London CLPs have bigger memberships than entire counties. The PLP/shadow cabinet are London to the fingertips

Inevitably the leader is going to reflect this consensus, given that it's accepted as unchallengeable orthodoxy by most of the membership. So blaming Starmer is silly: he is merely the flotsam on top of the tide of history that is tearing Labour apart

Anyone who stood for the Labour leadership on a platform that could win back the Red Wall and appeal to the country outside big cities would lose. The Lab membership whinges about Starmer and blames the party's woes on him: it should take a long, hard look in the mirror first