Keir Starmer, leader of the British opposition.SIMON DAWSON / Reuters
There is no more definitive signal to determine the degree of civility and respect for the law of anyone than their reaction after having run over a cyclist.
If the one behind the wheel is a prominent politician, and if it is also the leader of the left-wing opposition in the United Kingdom, who has been hammering Boris Johnson for months for his frivolity, irresponsibility and negligence, the traffic accident will be turns into a thrown weapon and dangerous trap.
And if on top of that the victim is a Deliveroo food delivery man, as some witnesses claim, the incident could have ended up being a modern replica
of Tom Wolfe's
Bonfire of the Vanities
.
The personal injuries, however, were minor.
These are the known facts.
Keir Starmer was driving his SUV through his London neighborhood of Kentish Town on Sunday morning.
At one point, he performed a dangerous maneuver.
Some witnesses have suggested that he intended to make a change of address on a congested street.
The Labor leader's office claims he was simply carrying out a parking maneuver.
Whatever the reason, the result was he ended up knocking down the cyclist who was passing by at that moment.
Starmer got out of the vehicle to inquire about his condition.
He exchanged information about his accident insurance with him, and, as the politician explained in a public statement, he spoke with an agent of the British Traffic Police present in the area, who requested his license plate number and waited for the ambulance to arrive. .
The cyclist was taken to hospital with injuries to his arm.
Not everything was so flawless, however.
The police contacted Starmer that afternoon to indicate that he was obliged to go to the police station to report the incident.
The agent he spoke to was not a member of the Metropolitan Police, and was also off duty.
The Labor leader fulfilled his obligation and immediately went to the Kentish Town Police Station.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said it was determined after the visit that the politician had not violated any traffic regulations - despite not having waited for officers to arrive - and that he had acted in good faith at all times.
Starmer, according to members of his team, telephoned the cyclist on Sunday night and inquired about his condition.
End of story?
Not quite, as long as there are remains to be herded.
The conservative newspaper
The Times
decided this Wednesday that it was worth retelling an incident already counted twenty-four hours before, with new details, and with a more mischievous and suggestive headline: "Starmer runs over a cyclist on the way to the tailor."
The lawyer and former Chief Crown Prosecutor, who always dresses impeccably (though not flamboyantly), has distanced himself from the image of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, and reminds public opinion of the refined manners of that
Champagne Labor
left
that it was Tony Blair's New Labor.
On the way to the tailor!
And not just any tailor, but Renzo Khan, whose clientele include the actors Jude Law or Billie Piper, or the Miliband brothers, the red aristocracy of Labor.
The conservative media have tried to scratch Khan's privacy in Starmer's wardrobe, but the tailor has maintained the discretion of his trade.
"We had scheduled the appointment on Sunday, between eleven and eleven thirty, but after the accident he canceled it and we moved it to Monday," he explained to
The Times
.
Only in the last paragraphs of the information is it clear that Khan also offers dry cleaning and sewing fix services.
"Sir Keir usually brings classic suits, English-style, so that we can make some adjustments", but also adding that they are not tailored suits but conventional size, "although brand designers", he added.
Starmer, it seemed, was not on his way to Saville Row, London's exclusive street for tailors.
If
The Times
opted for the class approach,
The Guardian
used the story to advance the cause of bicyclists.
"Cycling associations urge Keir Starmer to learn from his accident," headlined the progressive newspaper.
“We trust that this collision is a wake-up call to Starmer and the Labor Party, in the sense that they must put more pressure on the Government to invest the more than 6 billion a year promised in bicycle infrastructure, as suggested by the UN, or to make it easier for children to go to school by bike in a safe way as they do in the Netherlands, ”Donnachadh McCarthy, the founder of the
Stop Killing Cyclists
association,
told the
newspaper
.
In English, a
U-turn is called a U-turn
. It is the political expression to define the lurch and twists in the strategy of a Government. It has been the constant accusation Labor has leveled against Johnson during his tenure of the pandemic. Everything indicates that Starmer will have to endure, with all the stoicism at his disposal, some doses of his own medicine.
