It's going to be an interesting one - and there's a huge disconnect between London and the rest of the country once again. Everyone in the metropolitan elite is talking as though Starmer has the deal in the bag - I personally think he does, but it might not be the landslide of 1997 that everyone is predicting and you've made some valid points as to why.

The UK has managed to subvert both the populist leaders, Corbyn on the left and Johnson/Truss on the right and force the party back into the centre ground. I'm not convinced that Galloway will do as well as he thinks he might - nor am I sure that Farage et al will carve out the same demographic as UKIP. They seem to be gambling (as is Truss) on the American style populism, show up on TV, appear at Glasto, donate to charity, Truss showed up at a SuperPAC conference as a B-list celeb recently.... but I'm not convinced American style populism works here.

I've said that there would be a chance of a populist President, but I think British electoral system is more sensible than we think it is. It took a while to get Johnson under control, it took less than two months to show Truss the door. We require competence in the way that the US doesn't seem to want for its executive branch.

Whatever happens, it's going to be interesting. :o)