What Keir Starmer can learn from Ruben Amorim

We are living in an era of vibes. That is the key defining element of social and political discourse and influence. This is not a take I can claim for myself. I heard Simon Clarke, former MP, former chief secretary to the Treasury, at a time the second-tallest MP, come up with it. He was on Matt Chorley’s very listenable show on BBC Radio 5 Live. 

Clarke’s vibe assessment went something like this. There is no great benefit for those in power attempting to tackle really thorny insolubles. These take time, money and patience. That is a trio that is almost impossible to score as wins.

Instead, those without power, either challenging for it or trying to land a few glancing blows, can get a sense of what is itching people, where the generalised moods are blowing – essentially, getting a vibe. Then, they can respond in broad terms, which brings magnification online and results in growth for them. There is some merit to this reasoning. It can help explain why Reform and the Greens have found escape velocity. 

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When you break it down, both parties have charismatic leaders who draw people to them – the Greens’ Zack Polanski has clearly had less time than Farage – but who have no substantial policies, nor have they any policy wins or failures to be judged against. So, they can say anything by standing in the rain and claiming they’re a forecaster.

The Greens are said to have more than 140,000 members – the numbers have doubled since Polanski took over. According to Reform’s live membership growth tracker, they now have a lick over 265,000 members. They’re gunning to beat Labour’s 309,000 membership total.

While there is a bit of merit in having outliers who can work like this and keep the government honest – those in power know they’re not going to be let off the hook for anything. Ultimately, the vibesters will lead us nowhere. 

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Take Reform’s recent vibes move. Sarah Pochin, one of Reform’s five MPs who are constantly on TV, had complained about the number of Black and Asian people on TV. “Your average white person, average white family is … not represented any more,” she cried. There was no detailed information, no stats, nothing except a sense, a vibe from her that this was the case. Her outrageous, offensive remarks were “shocking racism”, said Keir Starmer. Even Nigel Farage said they were “ugly”.

But, because we’re in a vibes culture, the remarks were normalised to the extent that before long the think pieces, realising a number of people agreed with Pochin, came blaming those who took exception to her remarks because those who took exception had not done something else the think piece writers wanted them to. So, really, Pochin was the victim. That’s vibes for you. 

Clarke is right, but it’s not new. It was vibes, essentially, that led to Boris Johnson being able to get in and run rampant. He didn’t really have a great, clear platform for useful change. People just had a sense he was the right sort of shambling, Latin-mangler for the job.

It was vibes that carried Jeremy Corbyn so far too. And it was vibes, to a degree, that led earlier to the Brexit vote. The Remain side kept trying to make a financial argument. The Leave side just had to say, you know things are bad, you can feel it, this is the way to sort it. 

At present, the government continues to wrestle with stagnant growth figures and unemployment numbers. A hard reality of tax rises – which are politically poisonous and so become the only target in town – are easily condemned. In actuality, if we’re really going to tackle poverty, which will take more time and more investment and more organisation, it needs tough decisions rather than somebody shouting bad vibes.

Maybe Starmer, the great Arsenal fan, can take some positivity from Ruben Amorim at Old Trafford. Despite what the vibesters say, if you work hard enough to make your version of three at the back function, you can turn a corner and see it thrive.

Though first he’d need something he believes in.

Paul McNamee is editor of the Big Issue. Read more of his columns here. Follow him on X.

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