Some elections are decided more by an alchemical admixture of moods than by the arithmetical aggregations of psephology, and this was one of them. Bitter disgust towards the Conservatives and resigned acceptance of Labour as the default option have intermingled, and – with an infusion from the first-past-the-post system – produced a super-majority that the majority do not want. Potent but unstable, the compound will undergo another transmutation before the government’s term is over, as its authority is dissolved in the crucible of internal divisions and global shocks.
For the present, Labour seems unchallengeable. With the collapse of the Blue Wall, the demolition of the SNP and a Tory wipeout in Wales, Keir Starmer has made an unelectable party into the untrammelled master of the British state. It is an extraordinary accomplishment. Yet Labour’s hold on power is much weaker than it looks.
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