Labour has another new colour "Black". A thinktank established by Lord Mandelson. It has released two documents one called "Why fiscal conservatism and social justice go hand in hand" and the other "Cameron's Trap: Lessons for Labour from the 1930s and 1980s". (see here and here for details and downloads- plus this article in the Guardian).Roughly translated "cutting your cloth according to your means" or "only spend what you can afford". This is more of a Tory than Labour policy that neglects to mention the poorest in society will never be able to have free income to spend or for that matter make some savings for their future. It doesn't mention investing in infrastructure to promote growth and hence creating new jobs. It talks about an "enterprising state" which is another way to introduce private companies in the public sector as a means to make profit at the expense of tax payers. These documents - one can only call them Blairite or New Labour - always start trying to rectify the bottom of society - without mentioning the top of society or make suggestions to equalise some of their benefits (tax loopholes) downwards to the middle / lower parts of society.
With a poor economic outlook Cameron's and Osborne's poll ratings are twice that of the two Ed's. Ed Miliband's conference theme of "predatory capitalism" predicted to be stolen by Cameron and hailed as the saviour, while the Labour party allowed it to develop. The Tories have a consistent repetitive message of "there is no alternative" to reducing the deficit, which the electorate understands and I'd be surprised if they have heard of Labour's five point plan. Getting Labour's message right (e.g. manufacturing and exporting), consistently repeating it and then the electorate will listen.
(Various responses to the Black Labour proposals can be found here)
JON WILLIAMS
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