A prime minister without a spine, a nation without direction

He may have squeezed a trade deal out of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and given the impression of forging a deeper entente cordiale with French leader Emmanuel Macron, but set beside Donald Trump, Keir Starmer appears to be little more than a lapdog on a very short leash.

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Surely I was not the only one to feel that queasiness induced by a sudden plunge on a roller-coaster, as Trump, aggrandising himself as elder statesman, seemingly welcomed a British prime minister to set foot in Scotland.

The diplomatic equivalent of second violin playing first.

The plain truth is that Starmer, for all of his obvious delight in jetting off to international conferences, needs to develop a backbone that is not least discernible on his home turf.

That involves much more than calling an emergency summer recess cabinet meeting to find “a lasting path to peace in the middle east.”

Although it looks as if the UK will join France, Portugal and Canada in calling for recognition of a Palestinian state in September, this should have been well done by now, as per Labour election manifesto.

The United Nations has already called the dire situation in Gaza “man-made starvation.”

As if that wasn't apparent in news footage night after night.