We have entered a new age of political rhetoric – and that’s bad news for Keir Starmer | Andy Beckett

The Guardian OpinionEditor

January 30, 2026 | 5:18 PM•1 min read

Originally published on The Guardian Opinion

We have entered a new age of political rhetoric – and that’s bad news for Keir Starmer | Andy Beckett

Pre-2008, voters with prosperous and improving lives didn’t mind being excluded from the conversation. Those days are over

Who was the last politician you listened to for any length of time? Perhaps it was Andy Burnham or Zack Polanski. Or maybe it was Wes Streeting, Nigel Farage or Zarah Sultana. Perhaps your dark secret is that it was Donald Trump.

One thing these politicians have in common is that they are all unusually good communicators. From Farage’s drawling provocations to Polanski’s pithy directness, Sultana’s concentrated blasts of outrage to Trump’s mesmerising ramblings, they compel you to listen. The completely forgettable passages that voters across western democracies have associated with political speech for decades are largely absent.