It’s the positioning that matters

Yvette Cooper doesn’t like Cameron’s announcement that he’d spend less than the £680bn Brown intends to in 2010/11. “Unlike the Conservatives, we refuse to abandon people in tough times. The British economy needs a shot in the arm, not a slap in the face.” Except giving people their money back in tough times – as I suspect Cameron will do with the money he saves – is the very opposite of abandoning them. Does she not think the government will be tightening its belt, as all households in Britain are doing? This is what Gordon Brown would call the “wrong side of the argument”. Cameron is finally moving on to firm ground here: he’d actually cut back Labour’s profligacy. Sure, it will open them up to the “Tory cuts” attack line to which they can reply: “yes, we’ll cut waste, cut inefficiency, cut tax, cut the burden that government is placing on ordinary families.” This is what’s important: not the sum of money, but the positioning. The Shadow Cabinet members I’ve spoken to are hugely encouraged, seeing as if a artificial constraint has now been lifted from them. There is a feeling of “game on” – and there are more stages to fight in the runup to the Pre-Budget Report on Monday. Let’s see what else Osborne has to offer.