Ed Miliband was on Andrew Marr’s sofa this morning, drawing 2015 battle lines. It all looked very encouraging – if you are a conservative, that is.
Miliband started discussing the Paris attacks, saying he wants to give the security services what is necessary — but as MI5’s director-general said on Thursday evening, that means more than money. It means the powers to put a wire on the bad guys, intercept emails and do so quickly. Does Miliband agree that these capabilities are also needed?
On the deficit, he tried to play the fiscal hawk…
“Most Labour leaders go into elections saying we’re going to raise spending. “I’ve got great news”, they say, “we’re going to raise spending in every area.” I’m a Labour leader who’s going into an election saying, outside a small number of protected areas, departmental spending will be falling year on year until we balance the budget.”
He attempted to critique the government from this perspective:-
“Now why has George Osborne missed his deficit targets? Not because he hasn’t made the cuts. He has made the cuts, but what’s happened is he hasn’t got the revenue in”.
This is true, but not for the reasons Miliband says. He blames the deficit woes on the ‘cost of living crisis’ — he doesn’t quite explain the link. But one of the main reasons that revenue hasn’t risen as quickly is that Osborne is spending so much supporting people back into work — a point that the Chancellor will hopefully get around to making some time.
Miliband tried to present his class war-tax rises (50p, mansion tax) as proof of his newfound fiscal responsibility. As if. The generous estimates say his mansion tax would raise £1.6 billion tops, and the 50p tax would raise nothing (his friend Francois Hollande has abolished his 75p tax after it failed to raise the expected revenue). These stunts dont work, but Miliband isn’t interested in what works. He’s interested in what focus groups like the sound of, which is why he’s a fundamentally unserious politician.
There is another main difference between the parties: the Tories have resolved not to repeat their misleading claim to have ‘halved the deficit’ but Miliband is repeating his misleading claim. He did it again: the Tories, he said, ‘want to go back to 1930s levels of public spending’.
The best moment came when Marr asked Miliband if it’s true that he said he would ‘weaponise’ the NHS in the 2015 election campaign. Miliband tried to dodge the question, but Marr persisted and asked – five times.
MARR: Did you use the word ‘weaponise’ about the National Health Service?
MILIBAND: What I’ve said is that I want a fight for the NHS.
MARR: Did you use the word ‘weaponise’ though?
MILIBAND:Well, look, I don’t recall exactly what I said, but we are in a fight for the National …
MARR: So it’s possible that you did?
MILIBAND: We’re in a fight for the National Health Service and I make absolutely no apologies for the fact that I’m really concerned about what’s happening to our National Health Service in this country.
ANDREW MARR: Sure but that word, which clearly infuriated the prime minister – ‘weaponise’ – does seem to a lot of people rather a cynical word to use about the NHS?
MILIBAND: I think what’s infuriated the Prime Min…
ANDREW MARR: Can I just ask, did you use it?
ED MILIBAND: I don’t recall exactly what I said, but what I’m clear about is that we’re in a fight for the NHS…
MARR:We can all see what’s happening in the NHS… But just before we leave this point, you know the prime minister called this a cynical and disgusting word. Do you disown the word ‘weaponise’?
MILIBAND: What I don’t disown or what I …
MARR: Do you disown the word?
MILIBAND:No what I absolutely … what I absolutely stand by is that we’re in a fight for the future …
MARR: That’s an answer to a different question, if I may say so.
MILIBAND: I know, but we’re in a fight for the future of the National Health Service. Honestly, I don’t think this is about the words we use.
MARR: Well it is partly.
‘I dont recall exactly what I said,’ he said. Quite, this lack of attention to detail has come to sum up his approach.
Miliband’s announcement of the day was his need for a new cost of living index — as he put it, ‘a better measure for living standards’, which summarises his dangerous level of cluelessness. He has written to Andrew Dilnot, the Head of the Statistics Authority, to ask for a new way of judging the cost of living.
Rather brilliantly, Marr torpedoed this policy in a sentence. The ONS has already looked at this, he said: following 18 months research, the Johnson Review reported last week and it concluded that a better index — better than CPI and RPI — would be CPIH, or CPI including housing costs. This embarrasses Labour in two ways: first, the review he wants has already been done, and the results published last week.
But worse, the Johnson Review concluded that both CPI and RPI exaggerate living costs: CPIX is, on average, about 0.2 points behind CPI.So, as Marr put it,
“if we change again it might be tougher on ordinary families, not easier”.
Ed Milliband needn’t have bothered writing to the Statistics Commission because its official review has concluded the only problem is that the current cost of living indices are exaggerated. The opposite conclusion to the one Miliband wants.
Overall, the Miliband interview bodes well for the Tories. On his chosen battleground, the economy, he clearly doesn’t know what he is talking about.
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