This is one of those things that I don’t quite understand. Gordon Brown is obsessed with dividing lines and this is supposed to be upsetting us? Sure, this need to draw a contrast (often a false one, but never mind) between his Virtuous Labour party and the Callous Toffs & Cads at Tory head office is frequently petty, prickly and pointless. But what of it? Pete’s the latest Spectator gentleman to complain about the Dividing Lines Obsession:
In fact, Dividing Lines are something of a Spectator obsession too (See here for instance for the 79 other times the term’s been cited on this site) and I don’t understand why. Surely, Dividing Lines are Good Things? Otherwise, how do you tell the parties apart? Sure, all politics is short-term and dirty as far as Gordon is concerned but that’s the nature of the game, isn’t it? Perhaps it is tedious and frequently tendentious, but that’s only to be expected in an election year. Right?So far as the government is concerned, it matters not that these pledges have been made before – what matters is the opportunity to draw more dividing lines across the landscape of British politics. “Caring” versus “cruel”, as far as the eye can see.
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