Time will tell
There is a lot in the papers these days about how badly Labour is doing, how nothing is changing and a lot of “why don’t they cut taxes and spend more on everything like we would”, from the Tories.
As Andrew Rawnsley pointed out in The Observer yesterday Labour needs to get on the front foot, but it is also quietly sorting a lot of things out. Lease holding reforms, higher minimum wages, a better health service, lower illegal immigration, a functioning state.
But for those who think Labour is doomed and especially those Tories who think the government will collapse anytime soon I have some news, it is still 4 years until the next election.
If schools, health and transport are all better by then, if house building is soaring and growth is slightly higher than expected, then the Tories can whistle for all the good that promising tax cuts will do them.
Labour already has its policy well worked out for that one, what services will you cut to fund those tax cuts you are promising? The government will have the power of the incumbent, that the Tories enjoyed for 14 long years, to deride and mock the spending and tax plans of the opposition.
Just saying “we will increase defence spending by 0.5% of GDP by cutting fat” won’t work. Not when you had 14 years of fat cutting and then cut funding because you ran out of money, it is all going to be very difficult to explain, mainly because it is an obvious lie.
The Tories are presently like a landlord drunk on the own stock. As the media attack everything Labour does and even claim that it is failing to fix problems the Tories caused after years in power or which have apparently only been noticed in the last few months.
But Labour has a huge majority, the Tories have forgotten how unpopular they were just a few months ago. They are offering just the same policies, based on the same fantasy economics and the same lies.
4 years is a long time in opposition, it is even longer if you offer exactly the same failed policies again and again.
From Jonty Bloom Media Ltd
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
Personally I’d be really happy if the tories carried on offering up the same tired old crap and stayed in opposition for ever (or better yet as the third party after the Lib Dems take over as HM’s Opposition)
I'm personally quite pleased with progress so far - Labour are getting on with some worthwhile stuff and doing what they said they'd do. But (and there has to be a 'but'), I just wish they would be bolder regarding the EU. The world has changed since Starmer issued his red lines on our relationship with the EU. His promises in that regard have been overtaken by events. Obviously it's good that the relationship has improved after the stupidities of Brexshit, but it's not enough.