BORIS JOHNSON looked every inch like a world leader on his trip to the US this week.
Flanked by new Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, he banged the drum for Britain with his trademark flair.
But now the PM must focus fully on the very real issues closer to home.
The massive queues formed at the petrol pumps come amid mounting concerns, adding to growing panic over gas prices and food shortages.
If car owners and shoppers are gripped by panic now, how dire could things get in the winter?
So we welcome Boris’s decision to allow in 5,000 more EU workers to ease the HGV crisis.
But it will be little more than a sticking plaster without other urgent measures such as speeding up lorry driving tests.
Our recovery from the massive devastation of Covid is bound to be rocky.
But too often ministers seem to be playing catch up with problems they could have foreseen. The country must not be brought to its knees by events for which the Government should have been prepared.
And we cannot remain at the mercy of a Russian gas giant — whose links to President Putin are indisputable — to keep our homes warm.
Boris, like previous Tory PMs, appears enamoured with green energy initiatives.
But it is no good hosting events like next month’s COP26 summit on climate change if ordinary families are left feeling out in the cold this winter.
It is crucial that as the country gets back on its feet, the Government gets better at joined-up planning.
If not, the Government risks feeling the chill from voters.
Chink in the Starmer
FLOUNDERING Sir Keir Starmer needs to get his act together pronto.
You would expect the Opposition to be steaming ahead in the polls coming up for two years after an election.
But he’s got a huge job on his hands.
And we’re not just talking about voters who have heard nothing about what the party now stands for. He’s struggling because not everyone in the hall at their annual rally in Brighton backs him.
A half-decent Opposition would be landing blows on the Government.
Sir Keir needs to rid himself of Corbyn-era shackles during his speech this week and set the party in a new direction.
But he seems unable to connect with those in Tory heartlands and across the so-called Red Wall.
This is the first in-person conference for the Labour leader and the way things are going it looks like being his only one.
Sir Keir is in the last chance saloon. Starmer needs more drama.
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