AS we begin what will undoubtedly be a very difficult year for us all, suffering multiple failures in local, national and international politics, we should be asking ourselves what kind of leadership could possibly steer us out of the economic, climate and social crises we are facing.

Jon Cruddas is not someone with whom I would often agree these days — though I liked his “A Good Society” pitch some years back — but his Guardian article of December 30, “Keir Starmer lacks a clear sense of purpose,” has articulated, in bold but moderate terms, what many feel within as well as outside the Labour Party.

In a build-up to his book, A Century of Labour, which is out this month, Cruddas criticises Starmer’s “detachment from his party’s traditions.” He says, “little ties Starmer to the ethical and spiritual corners of Labour’s early founders,” and then goes on to criticise the leader’s approach to economics, inequality, justice, welfare, liberty, freedom — pretty much everything really.