Wise words for Ed Miliband from Alastair Campbell today.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, Tony Blair’s former director of communications pointed out that the current Labour stance of simply criticising Government plans for spending reductions, without putting forward any cogent alternative proposals, just won’t wash:
“He’s only just been elected, but I think when the cuts do start to kick in – providing we have got a proper economic narrative – [it] isn’t just about saying ‘we’re against the cuts’.
“It is actually about how you build growth and how you develop a strategy for the future.”
There is some cause to believe that Miliband may be minded to heed Campbell’s advice. His newly-appointed shadow Chancellor, Alan Johnson, has signalled that he will take Alistair Darling’s proposals to halve the deficit within a Parliament – effectively a cut of £44 billion – as a “starting point”. Less ambitious than coalition proposals, certainly, but considerably more realistic than anything proposed by Ed Balls, who Miliband might easily have appointed to the shadow portfolio.
Labour are, after all, Her Majesty’s Opposition. A position of ostrich-like denial is both demeaning of their constitutional function and insulting of the electorate.
