Séamas O'Reilly: Keir Starmer's austerity is a betrayal of ordinary British people's hopes

If there is one lesson we can learn from the past 12 weeks of British politics, it’s that honeymoons are brief.At times it was more like a stern talking-to from a disappointed schoolmaster.There is a deep, sociopathic grimness in hearing a Labour party leader advocating for what amounts to a swingeing campaign of budget cuts and welfare crackdowns, all while chuckling at protesters as they’re removed for drawing attention to the UK’s continuing military links with Israel.On that latter point, Starmer beamed from his podium drawing applause from the party faithful as he quipped “this guy’s obviously got a pass from the 2019 conference”.This, in reference to that hilariously gauche period when Labour — and human rights lawyer and then-shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer — stood against things like genocide.Given all we have come to know about Starmer’s easy wit, this zinger was clearly pre-written, doubtless drafted after an activist shouted down chancellor Rachel Reeves on the same iss...