Keir Starmer is having his chainsaw moment – but all he will slash is democracy | Simon Jenkins

Sir Keir Starmer claims to be haunted by the blockers, checkers, regulators, bloaters.

Cuts on a scale mooted this week by Starmer , of NHS England and 25% in the administrative costs of regulation for businesses, have been achieved only once in modern times.

But nothing Starmer is proposing can come near the bureaucratic explosion planned by his deputy, Angela Rayner .

Such costly upheavals must be the last thing local councils need just now, with about half of councils in England reportedly near to bankruptcy. The superficial appeal of the Musk moment is that by breaking things it leaves room for renewal. That may be. But a civilised democracy subjects it to checks and balances. Dismantling the geography of English local government removes that check and replaces it with Whitehall. All Starmer ’s chainsaw will slash is democracy. - Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist.