Some 20 years ago I interviewed Alastair Campbell, the former No10 press chief under Tony Blair, soon after Campbell stepped down from his post. One sentence he said stuck in my mind: ‘The key challenge for any government is to stick to its programme and not be knocked off course by events.' His advice was similar to that attributed to Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan who, when asked by a journalist for the greatest challenge faced by a statesman, replied ‘events, dear boy.

As Sir Keir Starmer is discovering, events are an occupational hazard of the job and there have certainly been a few of them since last July. They may explain why after five months in power he has felt compelled to reiterate his government's headline priorities and dispel any public unease that it is drifting rudderless. The problem is that politicians like simple targets, often with little chance of meeting them or even having any control over them, creating hostages to fortune down the line.