Thursday, March 05, 2026

Regime change - does it actually work?

It’s all very well swooping in and arresting Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela or bombing the life out of Persia’s Ayatollah Khamenei but what next?

We might all want to see Vlad Putin dead and buried but someone worse could quite easily succeed him.

While no-one would wish to see Sir Keir Starmer extinguished completely, the growing likelihood that he will be replaced is not something to imagine with equanimity.

Without a General Election – and why should we have one given the Tories’ unattractive record of regicide? – if Starmer goes, we’re bound to get someone even worse.

The only solution his party can come up with to restore its popularity is a new leader and a wealth tax which would merely hasten the flight of Britain’s wealth-creators for foreign shores.

My own nightmare scenario is Angela Rayner as PM and Ed Miliband as Chancellor but others can doubtless envisage something equally catastrophic.

Sir Keir’s days are numbered. Soon enough they will get rid of him. But taking out the leader is not the answer unless there’s a clear plan for a better the future. In Britain, as in Venezuela and Persia, there isn’t.