The PM sounds like Elon Musk when promising to fight the ‘blockers’, but his government’s plans will weaken the link between peoples and politics

Every new prime minister has an Elon Musk moment. A sudden attack of frustration leads to a burst of machismo, a chainsaw response. The system stinks. Slash the bureaucrats. Smash the machine.

Thatcher had her “subversives”, Tony Blair his “scars on my back”, David Cameron his “enemies of enterprise”. Now Sir Keir Starmer claims to be haunted by the blockers, checkers, regulators, bloaters. All are ganging up against the cry of his new friend, Donald Trump, to grow, baby, grow. So get going, chainsaw, do your job.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist