I genuinely think Starmer may end up being remembered as the first Prime Minister brought down by a combination of hostile state-backed bots (Russian, most likely), social media algorithms and an online environment that rewards misinformation over reality.
The amount of people who absolutely hate him for reasons that don’t seem remotely rational is absurd. My parents basically get their news from Facebook memes these days and genuinely think Starmer is responsible for mass immigration, Jimmy Savile and the grooming gangs. The misinformation on Twitter/X is something else, and a lot of it is so obviously pushing narratives that originate from or benefit Russia.
What you never hear about is that he’s completed more manifesto commitments in two years than the Tories managed in fourteen. You never hear about the huge investment in infrastructure that won’t produce instant results but will go some way towards fixing the mess the Conservatives left behind.
You rarely hear about NHS waiting lists falling, workers’ rights being improved, rail operators being nationalised, relations with the EU improving, the UK’s reputation abroad recovering, non-dom status being abolished, childcare costs coming down, state pensions increasing, homicide rates falling, hundreds of thousands of children being lifted out of poverty and immigration being significantly reduced.
Instead, millions of people now seem to get their politics from memes, viral clips and outrage merchants on social media. Since Brexit, it feels like it’s got a lot worse. You have a white supremacist Russia sympathiser running Twitter/X, a free speech absolutist running Facebook, and various “news” channels that aren’t really news channels at all, spreading outrage, misinformation and culture war nonsense 24/7.
It’s genuinely worrying that a beige, fairly boring, technocratic politician can be so easily destroyed by this stuff.