I'm not a fan of Starmer's approach to the borders. I'd prefer stressing the creation of actual safe routes for asylum seekers. Still, at least Starmer is working on an actual functional asylum system rather than the mess that was left. /5
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The stress on national security feels needed. It's still disturbing that the last Defence Review happened under Johnson, pre-Ukraine invasion - and Johnson defended it by saying the age of tank warfare in Europe was over. /6
Notice Labour's commitment to multilateralism, which is important at a time when multilateralism is coming under attack - and, when Trump takes power, will continue to do so. /7
There's a stress on "the path to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence," which is good. I know the Tories made a bigger commitment to get there quicker in the election, but theirs was unfunded. /8
How is this to be measured? In living standards, most importantly of all. Starmer wants living standards to improve, which will be the felt impact of his government by the end of his term in office. /10
Interestingly, there are hints of the Johnson "Levelling Up" strategy running through this section - the idea that growth is unequally distributed in terms of geography. But it feels rather more fleshed-out. /11
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