MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: High office demands grown-ups who can smile while holding their nose By MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT Published: 23:00, 9 November 2024 | Updated: 23:09, 9 November 2024 e-mail View comments Is the Keir Starmer Cabinet a government of adults, or a collection of college activists who have never grown up? The new Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch , accused the Prime Minister outright of being a student politician during their first Commons clash last week, and the jibe seemed to hit home. It is not just that the Labour Government has been entangled in avoidable scandals because so many of its members were too immature – and so easily seduced by offers of luxury goods, free tickets and other shiny gifts. It is that their view of the world still seems to be a sort of teenage spasm of wrath and self-righteousness, rather than mature statecraft.

Simple-minded anti-Americanism is a big part of adolescent Leftism, and the rise of Donald Trump has undoubtedly led to more of this. Yet this is hardly the way for serious political operators to behave. Sir Keir Starmer's government has a view of the world that still seems to be a sort of teenage spasm of wrath and self-righteousness, rather than mature statecraft Donald Trump may not think that highly of Sir Keir, but he was still ready to entertain him to dinner in New York What we (and the Americans) say in public is always going to be different from what we say in private.

Mr Trump probably does not think all that highly of.