Labour is still in its 'phoney' period. Far tougher tests await in autumn | Martin Kettle

When the honeymoon ends, Keir Starmer's team will be judged on its handling of pressure points - from the economy to North Sea oil drilling

In the Britain of September 1939, it became known as the phoney war. Hitler had invaded Poland. War had been declared. For months, though, there was little military action. At home, the country was placed on a war footing. But these were not yet the decisive times. Those would come later; they would last for years and would change the country for ever.

In the Britain of August 2024, we are living through something comparable in terms of the arc of Keir Starmer's prime ministership. Labour has been elected. It is settling into government. It has a radically different project from its predecessors, the scale of which is widely underestimated. But these are not the decisive times either. For Britain, these might be dubbed a period of phoney government.