Out Of Money, And Out Of Ideas
Posted by Simon Emmett on February 22, 2010, 06:02
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?
