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A few years ago, I was invited to have a cup of coffee in the House of Commons with a

new member of Parliament, a big name in the law, but almost unknown in political circles.

He confessed to me that he was finding the transition from the courtroom to the Commons,

a little hard. He was used to winning arguments by marshalling facts and deploying evidence

and seemed, well, a little perplexed by how little they seemed to matter when standing

at the dispatch box. Welcome to Westminster, I joked as we parted, and thought, my God,

you've an awful lot to learn. Well, it is now clear that my coffee companion was and

is a quick learner. Sir Keir Starmer has just been elected to replace Jeremy Corbyn as

Labour leader and leader of her Majesty's Opposition. Within weeks, he'll be facing

Boris Johnson at Prime Minister's questions during the greatest crisis this country has

lived through for decades, and within a few years he'll face the electorate, and must

try to convince them that he, that is party, a fit for power. That is Keir Starmer's daunting

challenge, but he also has an extraordinary opportunity to convince the country that

the politics and the policy of this crisis can and should last well after coronavirus is

no longer in the news. He must persuade voters that the policies are big spending and big

government, public service, community and solidarity are ones that he and Labour should be

given the chance to pursue in normal times. So who is Keir Starmer? What are his roots,

his values, his core beliefs? That is what political thinking, my radio for podcast, aims

to explore in an extended conversation about what it is that makes those who shape our

political thinking tick. Friends of Starmer often complain that he doesn't tell, let alone

sell his backstory, that the star of his legal generation, the barrister who fought the

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