While the chances of an end to the bloody war in Ukraine remain anyone’s guess, the Prime Minister’s switched back to his day job, that’s to say running the country. And, for better or worse, he’s grabbing headlines like never before. It seems he's emboldened by an uptick in his own personal ratings.
It’s not so much a peace as a war dividend. Sir Keir Starmer’s success in at least getting Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky back on nodding terms has earned him plaudits everywhere.
Which may be one reason why he’s chosen to take on friend and foe alike with unexpected and dramatic reforms, both to the machinery of government and to how it divvies out our money.
The headline that no one saw coming was the axing of NHS England, the huge, unwieldy outfit set up just over a decade ago by the then Tory government to run the health service.
In theory it was going to lift the load off Whitehall. In practice it very expensively doubled up on much of the work, in the process diverting funds and getting in the way of patient care.
Getting rid of it then has gone down rather well, even though it’ll cost thousands of civil servants their jobs.
One former Conservative Health Minister went so far as to tweet: ‘I wish we’d had the guts to do this.’
And it looks like it’s just for starters, given Starmer’s dark warnings about taking a scalpel to other outsourced government organisations in coming months.
He’s also taking a huge pop at the welfare budget, placing far more emphasis on getting people on benefits to at least try and get jobs.
Here he’s up against far tougher odds, maybe facing the biggest rebellion to date from his own side.
Labour dissidents say the likely freeze in disability benefits mean the reforms are nothing more than a crude attempt to balance the books on the backs of people who can’t fend for themselves.
It’s certainly true that the backdrop to the Chancellor’s mini budget in a week or so is looking pretty grim, with the number-crunchers now saying there’s no spare money in the kitty.
But the political risks of angling for savings in this area are huge. When Tony Blair tried something similar in the opening months of his premiership the backlash was graphic.
Protesters in wheelchairs chained themselves to the gates of Downing Street and used red paint to daub the words ‘Blair’s blood’ on the street.
In his memoir a decade or so later he ruefully, and euphemistically, admitted: ‘They elicited much sympathy.’
And, given how the government’s early decision to take away nearly all oldies’ winter fuel allowance continues to rankle, it’ll be interesting to see if there’s any backtracking in coming days.
Overall though, Starmer’s strategy is pretty clear.
He’s not against the state doing its bit to get things done and to help people. Far from it, in fact. But he does see it in its current form as bloated and inefficient.
An obstruction, in short, to getting the public services that we can all see are in a pretty shoddy state to actually deliver the goods.
And a contributory factor to a ‘just say no’ culture when it comes to translating his promise of one and a half million new homes into places for people to live in.
Of course this bread and butter stuff lacks the drama of the making and unmaking of history, and maybe upending the entire world order, at the behest of the wrecking ball in the White House.
But, assuming The Donald doesn’t bin the American constitution and declare himself Dictator for Life, he’ll be out by the time of our next general election.
And in place of all his whims, and the toys he’ll have so loved throwing out of his nuclear-armed pram, we Brits are more likely to be focussed on our own lives and prospects.
Besides, polls show that we’ve got a pretty settled position. That Trump and Vladimir Putin are no more than two cheeks of the same backside, to borrow from one colourful ex-MP.
All of which has put another never knowingly understated chatterbox in a bit of a bind.
Until the twinkling of an eye ago Nigel Farage was the coming man, with his Reform Party doing better than the Tories, and sometimes even outstripping Labour.
But all of a sudden his way of fawning over his chum in the White House is working against him as far as voters are concerned.
And his chum’s chum Elon Musk has also been working against him, suggesting his former bestie now worstie, fellow Reform MP Rupert Lowe, is a better man than he.
Surprise surprise, Lowe’s now been kicked out of the party, and saying the beastliest things he can think of about his ex leader. And getting back as good as he’s giving.
Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the case, the spectacle of top dudes in any political grouping verbally duffing one another up is never a good look.
As to whether Farage’s flavour-of-the-month bubble’s about to burst, the town hall elections at the beginning of May will give us a clue.
So will the upcoming by-election in Runcorn, caused by the now ex Labour MP Mike Amesbury’s stepping down.
He’s been more or less a goner ever since footage emerged of him physically duffing up a punter. And, as Reform came second there at the general election they’ve had their hopes up.
Would be handy for them to get a new MP to replace the one they’ve lost, seeing as they only had five in the first place.
Arguably that was an unfairly small return, seeing as more than four million people voted for them. But if they do find that seemingly solid chunk of support melting away they won’t be alone.
In the early 1980’s the newly-formed left-of-centre Social Democratic Party, seen for a while as the biggest challenge to Labour since its foundation, simply imploded.
And fifteen years ago the one-time Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg was so popular, briefly, that some wondered if he might be on course to become Prime Minister.
Another hot ticket then. Sizzling even. Until it wasn’t.
But for those who’re finding the world so unpredictable and unpleasant just now that, frankly, it’d be better off run by animals, here’s a story to prove them right.
A keen-eyed guy by the name of Ruben Dario from Puerto Carreno in Colombia couldn’t believe what he was seeing at first, as a pigeon placed twig after twig all round a sleeping cat.
But he figured it out after a while. The dear little moggie was pregnant, and the bird was trying, albeit not hugely successfully, to make a nest for her during her confinement.
Having caught all this on camera, check out the vid on Yahoo News UK if you don’t believe me, he realised they were the best of buddies when the pigeon snuggled up against the pussy’s tummy.
And if nature’s deadliest foes can be so sweet and kind to one another there’s a lesson there, surely, for us lot.
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