Labour’s agony about how to attack the Tories continues. Is Cameron a spivvy PR man? A lightweight, unqualified for the job? Or is he actually an alright bloke; the acceptable face of an unacceptable party? The problem with the latter argument is that you accept that Cameron and Osborne are good things. But it’s the latter argument Labour are going for today.
What I love about the Labour attacks is seeing who they wheel out – they seem to have a small number of Labour MPs who are deemed popular. Poor old Stephen Pound is made to say the most terrible things about the Tories. Now it’s the turn of John Spellar to claim that the Tories have revealed a secret cuts agenda (which, as CoffeeHouses will know, I wish were true). Spellar says:
“Cameron had done a good spray job on the Tory party but it’s still the same old, nasty party that voters overwhelmingly rejected at the last three elections.”
Overwhelmingly rejected? The 2005 election saw Michael Howard win more votes than Blair did in England – it’s the Westminster system that converts this into a huge majority. And the “cuts” agenda is one which 72 percent of the public want, so there may be more of an appetite for those ruthless old Tories than Labour suspects. Anyway, Liam Byrne, the Minister for Shafting The Tories, also adds his tuppenceworth:
Brief thoughts: it is a lie to say the Tories want to cut pay for anyone. Not an exaggeration, a lie. If Byrne were to say this in a document regulated by the London Stock Exchange he’d commit an offence. But it’s worth remembering that Labour will lie in election campaigns. Next, it was not the Tories who made Dan Hannan a “poster boy” but the two million people worldwide who saw his YouTube video. And, as for hunting, does Byrne really think that issue has any traction?“The shadow chancellor wants to cut pay for nurses, teachers and the police, their latest poster boy wants to privatise the NHS and now they reveal one of their top priorities in a recession would be to abolish the hunting ban.”
I suspect Labour will soon alight on a firm attack line. If it’s this one, then we’re talking at least an 80-seat Tory majority.
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