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Labour loses its teeth

Michael Crick | 18:38 UK time, Friday, 24 April 2009

One of the most striking features of politics these days is the rapid churn of events. Gordon Brown's success in chairing the was only three weeks ago, yet already it seems like ancient history.

In the last fortnight we've seen the sudden neutralising of what some Labour people were hoping would be two of their most powerful weapons at the next election. First, as has been widely said already, the will make it a lot harder for Labour to mount personal attacks on leading Conservatives. Any attempt to do so will prompt reminders from the Tories about the "McBride smears".

And this week's budget has caused another big change. In 2001 and 2005 Labour had great success by accusing the Conservatives of planning big cuts in public spending - even though most of what the Tories contemplated was merely efficiency savings of the kind Alistair Darling outlined this week.

As I explain tonight, is suddenly transforming the terms of debate. Until recently, spending cuts were the great unmentionable in British politics. Now leaders of all parties recognise public concern about the huge levels of public debt, and in the last 48 hours have almost been falling over each other to .

And so Labour has lost another stick with which it hoped to beat the Tories.
First they've lost the "Tory toffs" line of attack, and now "Tory cuts".

Conservative strategists must be cock-a-hoop.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    if the guardian class forgot about sticks to hit each other with and did their job of guardianship would there be any fears about the election? if the guardianship had been good would we have had runs on banks? no savings? massive debt? and still a mess in things like nhs dentists?

    Why design policy not for the benefit of the country but to make others look 'bad'. one marvels at the self indulgence of it all.

  • Comment number 2.

    I guess the only silver lining in this very grey cloud is that we might at last see an intelligent debate about the fundamental changes we need to consider to our bloated local and central government institutions.

    Brown made a huge mistake in injecting massive funds into an unreformed health service with the entirely predictable outcome of marginal productivity improvements, despite billions of investment. We need to transform, then invest, not invest, then transform. This picture is replicated across numerous governmental bodies with endemic waste, over -resourcing, uclear accountabilities and poorly designed processes.



  • Comment number 3.

    GAMES POLITICIANS PLAY

    Well posted bookhimdano.

    Eric Berne gave the world Games People Play. It is how the immature masses get through their miserable lives.

    Britain needs MANAGEMENT of a high calibre. In Westminster and No. 10, we get games in which we are pawns.

    MPs must be put on the spot, locally, over an abstention box on the voting slip. With Parliament discredited, the voters should have the chance to register NO CONFIDENCE.

  • Comment number 4.

    dear bbc
    couldnt agree more with comment 3 of other option on ballot paper...call it the protest vote whatever!.
    Most voters are disillusioned with the daily games being played out by media and politicians to score points.
    We the public want and demand is
    "action"... it speaks better than "words"
    The media gives us the body language
    of our leaders and their interaction with
    the camera....we can listen to their arguments....but at the end of it all it is what action they take that will address our
    frustrations and their inability to act.
    Self indulgence breathes contempt and it
    can easily be identified by astute observation of our politicians on camera.
    Technology is there to make life easier for us the voters to decide what is right from wrong...we are looking from the outside
    and not in mirrors...as per Michael Jackson
    famous song.
    off my soapbox now
    regards
    LOUDinternationalist

  • Comment number 5.

    The majority of MPs say little and vote the way they are told; certainly many pay little attention to the views of their constituents. In the absence of more independent thought and action we can manage with fewer. We certainly don't need 640+. Cut them by half (to start with). Think of all those bath plugs we will not have to pay for.

  • Comment number 6.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 7.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 8.

    In Britain it is the spin doctors, the speculators and the hacks who are now considered to be the main experts on the economy. They were the ones that saluted Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor and they are now pretending that, as Prime Minister, he knows what he is doing. Even though he is playing nasty games with the economy and trying hard to appease the money men at a huge price for everyone else.

    JM

  • Comment number 9.

    Tories 5 # Labour 0

  • Comment number 10.

    Well said JamesAven.

    The greatest myth that ever came out of Scotland was not the Loch Ness Monster but that Gordon Brown was fiscally competent and economically adept.

  • Comment number 11.

    G20 was only a success if you believe Gordon Brown's spin that a trillion dollar package was agreed.

    Speak with your ±«Óãtv economics colleague Stephanie Flanders to learn that the package was only about a tenth of what was claimed.

  • Comment number 12.

    HAVE A CARE WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT GORDON (#11)

    He has the troops behind him - almost daily! He made a monkey of himself on YouTube so - OFF THE THE TROOPS - for a photo op. There's leadership; Shiney Boy Dave will struggle to top that (but you can bet he will).

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