• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

Labour are presenting you with a choice, but are you listening?

By Peter Shand @peter_shand89 Labour’s attack plan for the summer recess has been to complete a volte-face on last year’s holiday season, when leader Ed Miliband’s Shadow Cabinet up and left to go on their holidays and Ed saw the Tories take momentum in to the autumn. This year Shadow Cabinet Ministers are each being […]

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2014-08-08 14:08
in Politics
The London Economic

The London Economic

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

By Peter Shand @peter_shand89

Labour’s attack plan for the summer recess has been to complete a volte-face on last year’s holiday season, when leader Ed Miliband’s Shadow Cabinet up and left to go on their holidays and Ed saw the Tories take momentum in to the autumn. This year Shadow Cabinet Ministers are each being required to give a series of speeches on ‘The Choice’ between Labour and the Conservatives, which are beginning to amount to run of the mill policy re-announcements and cross-briefing across the Shadow Cabinet.

This is not to say that the idea does not have some foundation, as there is much traction to be made through a familiarity with the electorate beyond a party leader and disliked Shadow Chancellor, but endless speeches on a number of sporadic topics has meant that Labour have not managed to grab the news agenda with its announcements. Admittedly not helped by events in Gaza, Ukraine or a certain blonde’s flirtations with a parliamentary seat, Labour figures have failed to really hit home with their speeches so far. A case in point in is Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Rachel Reeves’s speech earlier this week on Labour’s plans for social security, which received so little traction no one noticed until the next day it had been delivered. If Labour can’t set the agenda on one of its own ‘home’ policy areas against the backdrop of four years on benefit cuts and sanctions against the poorest in our society, there really is something amiss.

Even more unhelpfully, the most widely publicised speeches, by Yvette Cooper on domestic violence and Andy Burnham on the future of the NHS, were both mired in debate about whether the current Government policy was indeed as set out in the opposition’s speeches, thus ensuring that audiences missed the messages that they were supposed to be receiving.

And, in the case of Burnham, his arguments for a ‘Death Tax’ (a levy on the value of estates after death) were instantly shot down by his own Shadow Chancellor. If the party cannot agree on the messaging internally, how is it supposed to convince a sceptical public that it has a coherent vision as to how best to steer the good ship United Kingdom? Moreover, many of the speeches have contained vague promises with again little detail. Further, as pointed our recently by Gordon Brown’s former spinner and controversial mouthpiece Damian McBride, ever quick to criticise Miliband, whilst Labour’s policies may gain traction with industry bodies and academics – no surprise given they are driven by a policy review process itself heavily influenced by industry bodies and academics – they are not resonating with the wider public in the way that, say, a sustained economic recovery and promises of tax breaks are likely to.

What this all means is that the party could well be diluting their message before the Party Conference in October, one of the only times that a politicians’ set-piece speech will really resonate with the public, and in terms of the general election campaign the true starting gun that enables the parties and the public to see who has emerged out of the blocks the quickest.

Looking forward to next May, at the moment the Labour Party appear to be jogging along and running through the motions, content with a poll lead which would see it limp to a majority next year. A series of run-of-the-mill speeches concentrating on the difference between them and the Conservatives, as opposed to how exactly Labour plans to go about being in Government, isn’t going to make the public go doolally over Miliband the way it did over Tony Blair. Miliband, and his team, need to get their heads out of the policy quicksand and confidently grasp the direction that they want to take the country in from 2015, if they are to truly convince voters of their credentials when polling takes place in May.

RelatedPosts

Dorries ‘broke rules’ on post-ministerial jobs with TalkTV role

Matt Hancock donates just 3% of I’m a Celebrity fee to charity

Nadine Dorries lands new TV show – and Boris Johnson will be her first guest

Sunak calls crisis meeting as Tory Party face war on two fronts

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

20 film adaptions that are, in fact, better than the book

Michael Jackson: An Alternative Top 10

Arsenal legend Ian Wright shares vile racist abuse he has received

Emily Maitlis explaining why PM’s ‘dodgy refurb’ matters goes viral

I wouldn’t trust this government with running a bath, let alone the Brexit process

Internet poet gives ‘If’ a Downing Street party remix

‘Wave of homelessness’ if eviction ban is lifted without support for renters

Top 5 restaurants in Mykonos

Tories accused of using Covid vaccines to slash aid budget ‘on the sly’

Leeds United and the modern magic of the FA Cup

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.