The Good Friday agreement showed how decent British politics can be – but Sunak and Starmer have other plans | Rafael Behr

Trivia, historical amnesia and dirty tricks have become the new norm. Neither party leader has the courage to buck that trend

When someone is said to look or sound like a politician it is never a compliment. That is unfortunate for Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. Both were chosen to lead their respective parties because they offered a style of leadership that was more conventional, more typically political, than their predecessors.

Starmer's pressed suits and lawyerly demeanour promised a new direction even before his disposal of Jeremy Corbyn's manifesto. Sunak's brand as the diligent managerial type was cultivated by proximity to Boris Johnson, who embodied the opposite. It still took 40 days of Liz Truss for Tory MPs to grasp that seriousness is indispensable in a prime minister.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist