Simon Emmett

If there is one thing that the Labour party is good at, it’s stirring up election speculation before Gordon Brown bottles out of it. In fact it’s all that Gordon Brown ever seems to do. This weekend has been another one of those weekends where that has been the case.

Because of the slight narrowing in the polls, speculation has mounting that an election will finally be called. This has mainly been fuelled by the usual cloak and dagger “briefing” from the government, and not a formal announcement, that has also become common place from this government. The motive is the thought that by having an slightly earlier election will stop the Conservatives gaining a working majority.

I personally still don’t believe that there will be an earlier election, and that May 6th will still be the date. That is based on the very practical, and real, financial situation that Labour finds itself in. The Labour party has run its finances just like the economy, and is seriously in debt. The debt is reported to be in the region of 25 to £30million, and the cost of a general election will add another £18million on top of that! Basically, they cannot afford to run two campaigns, as they’ve run out of money. The other potential nightmare for Labour is that a Hung Parliament would also be financially devasting to them.

If a hung parliament is the result, a second general election after only a few months will most likely occur, and if Labour can’t fund two seperate election campaigns now, a third will surely bankrupt them.

But it is not only money that Labour have run out of, it’s ideas as well.

At the weekend they launched their “new” campaign slogan. The only thing is, it isn’t new. When it was revealed, initially on Friday night before the official launch, a lot of bloggers and commentators thought that it seemed a little familiar. It was familiar. As reported in this morning’s Sun it was Labour’s conference slogan in 2003! Further proof that this government has truely run out of ideas.

This is a party that wants us to take a second look at it, and believe that it has the new ideas to get our economy back on track, and protect jobs. Well I did  take a second look a found that Labour cannot even sort it own party’s finances out, and the only jobs they seem to want to protect are their own.

Update: It looks as though that I was abit closer to the mark than I had thought with this blogpost as Ed Miliband has asked for “your ideas” for what should be included in Labour’s manifesto on twitter. They really have not got any policies have they?

Last night Labour finally revealed their campaign slogan for the forthcoming election, “A Future Fair For All”. For me, and a large proportion of the blogsphere this was a “spit you tea out laughing” moment. That is because the slogan itself is an admission of failure.

How? I can already hear some Labour supporters thinking. Well, why is there no mention of their record over the last 13 years? Besides the statistics don’t exactly match the claim of being “fair for all”, as inequality, the rich/poor divide, and NHS postcode lotteries, have all RISEN under Labour. How would that be fair in the future?

Then there are the election themes that Labour are concentrating on. When you look at the subtext of these they all sound as though they are coming from an opposition party fighting a poor government’s record.

“Securing the recovery” – In others words the government is going to “do nothing” (remember that phrase?) to deal with the deficit, even though it is larger than Greece’s.

“Protecting Frontline Services” – More spend, spend, spend, from Labour, which will mean more tax, tax, tax, for you and me.

“Standing up for the many” – A return to the class war politics that everyone hates. But this also suggests that the government hasn’t stood up for the many over the last 13 years,  which would explain the increases in inequality.

“Protecting future jobs and new industries” – How can Labour even think about this after it simply allowed Corus (and our steel industry with it) to collapse with many left out of work. Plus let us not forget that the hike in National Insurance announced in the pre-budget report, and due later this year is a tax on new jobs. So what this is, is an admission that they can’t protect current jobs, or current industries!

Labour are in denial if they think that their record in their 13 years in power will not be used to hold them to account. They have increased our tax burden putting more people into poverty. They have increased the rich/poor divide. They want to tax you when you die. They have run the economy into the ground, with the worst deficit in the G20 and longest recession in modern times. The have failed to protect or help industries. They have a generation of people who are unemployed, and a higher level of unemployment than when they took office. They have made your chances of getting treatment on the NHS a lottery depending on where you live.

That’s Labour’s record! It’s not fair, and it’s not right.