As temperatures in London soared higher than those in Marrakech and Islamabad this week, the Met Office issued a warning that they might reach up to 40˚C in parts of Britain – heat the country is far from ready for. In El Paso, where similar temperatures are forecast, cooling centres like public libraries offer instant relief, and a cheaper, more environmentally friendly style of air conditioning called ‘swamp cooling’ is employed. But in Britain, old buildings designed to insulate, a fetish for heritage, and insufficient legislation leave workers trapped. The case for air conditioning is plagued by hypocrisy and debates on conservation, with architectural purists denouncing the modernisation of listed buildings. Reform UK’s manifesto pledges to “Scrap Net Zero and Related Subsidies”, arguing that “we are better to adapt to warming, rather than pretend we can stop it.”
Amid the heat, on Monday, Keir Starmer stood at a Downing Street podium and delivered a short statement that robotically listed his supposed achievements before, with obvious emotion, announcing his departure. Widely referred to as “two-tier Keir” for his palpably asymmetric approach to public order, Starmer’s legacy includes full-term abortion, censorship, digital surveillance, and the abolition of trial by jury, according to critics. Soaring youth unemployment, farm suicides, and the bankruptcy of schools for disabled children and religious minorities all mark his tenure. His denunciation of the previous regime as “morally bankrupt” is difficult to dispute, but many question whether a man with such a record can truly boast of returning “decency” or pride to Britain.
“Keir Starmer resigns as temperatures hit 40°C, with critics citing failed policies and heat risks.”
The deeper issues echo the referendum exactly 10 years ago, when the country voted to leave the EU. Vote Leave’s promise to “Take Back Control” aimed to restore democratically accountable national government and end uncontrolled immigration. But state capacity had already atrophied; civil servants had relaxed into the inertia of EU autopilot, and the global financial crash exposed the regime’s inflexibility. The post-political settlement that hummed along in boom years showed its downside in the bust, with an insatiable appetite for human quantitative easing delivered without electoral accountability.
As extreme heat waves become “the new normal,” Bob Ward and Emma Howard Boyd of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE argue they should not be normalised. Boyd warned in a press release that this week’s extreme temperatures risk losses to the economy of hundreds of millions of pounds due to lower productivity. Yet with Starmer gone and the political machinery focused on the spectacle of Downing Street bloodshed, the substantive challenges – from heatproofing a nation to rebuilding state capacity – remain unresolved.