The biggest problem for Starmer and co: the machinery of government is broken and they can’t fix it | Martin Kettle

The prisons crisis is symptomatic of a dysfunctional system that is defeating these ministers as badly as those before them

In one of my favourite Seinfeld episodes, George Costanza is sitting in a New York diner and – this shows how long ago it was – reading his morning paper. Suddenly he folds the paper up, sets it down on the table and looks across to his companion with weary exasperation. Why, he asks, does the high-minded New York Times refuse to accept that China is a turn-off?

Just like George, many readers will at some stage probably have experienced a similar feeling. Perhaps it was about China, but perhaps about something completely different. Call it the “not right now” syndrome. It is the syndrome that recognises that a subject might be important, but reading a lengthy report about it can be another thing altogether.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

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