Beyond Parody
Dan Hodges writing in The Telegraph describes Labour's response to the Budget as 'beyond parody' and he's bang on the money if you ask me, since the Conservatives have gone further and faster on pay protection than 'Red' Ed Miliband was promising in the run-up to the 2015 general election.
In effect, George Osborne has stolen Labour's clothes - shot the party's fox - by trumping its much heralded plan to raise the minimum wage to £8 an hour by 2020.
Here's how Labour List reported the 'big' news story which was announced at the Labour Party conference in 2014:
Miliband confirms Labour want £8 Minimum Wage by 2020
21ST SEPTEMBER, 2014 9:08 AM
The Sunday Mirror and the Observer both carry the splash this morning that Ed Miliband is planning a Minimum Wage of £8 an hour by 2020 is Labour wins the next election. That’s an increase of £1.50 an hour from the current minimum wage, which will be implemented by the Low Pay Commission over the course of the next Parliament in consultation with business, would be based on a plan to boost the NMW from 54% to 58% of median earnings by 2020.
Now much of this is political spin, of course, but as Dan Hodges rightly says it's the Labour Party that now looks ridiculous - not the Conservatives.
Their Budget response was beyond parody - Labour still haven't got a clueNow much of this is political spin, of course, but as Dan Hodges rightly says it's the Labour Party that now looks ridiculous - not the Conservatives.
Given the opportunity to show they'd learned the lessons of their general election defeat, Labour flunked it
Harriet Harman has twice stood in as acting Labour leader Photo: PA
By Dan Hodges - The Telegraph
In the end, they couldn’t quite do it. Responding to the Budget is probably the toughest job in politics, both individually for the leader of the opposition, and collectively for their party.
But Harriet Harman - who is quick to admonish those who dismiss her as a mere “interim leader” - gave it a go. “We will be a different kind of opposition” she announced. One that would not criticise for the sake of criticising, though the temptation was there. Her party would take the time to examine in detail the measures that had been announced, and consider them. Where they found proposals they liked, Labour would say so.
And there was lots in the Budget for Labour to like. With a Tory leadership election a mere 24 months away, George Osborne was in a beneficent frame of mind. The savage spending cuts he had announced in March were to be scaled back - by a whopping £83 billion over the life-time of the parliament, according to the OBR. There would be cuts in inheritance tax, in corporation tax and rises in personal tax allowances. And, in his most eye-catching announcement, he pledged the introduction of a new National Living Wage that would equate to £9 an hour by 2020.
From a minimum wage to the National Living Wage
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Lots for Labour to lavish praise on there. So immediately after the main statements had finished, Labour shadow chancellor Chris Leslie trotted over to the BBC to demonstrate to the country what a different kind of opposition looked like.
And to be honest, it looked remarkably like the old kind of opposition. Invited at the outset to list those measures Labour supported, Mr Leslie instead chose to attack the Government for the sake of it. George Osborne was all over the place. He’d been forced into a series of humiliating u-turns. The National Living Wage policy was just spin. His election victory had forced him to accept Labour was right on the economy.
OK, I slightly paraphrased Chris Leslie on that last bit. But only slightly.
“This is all about the politics,” Harriet Harman had taunted George Osborne in the chamber. And she was right. George Osborne has again used the Budget to demonstrate his great grasp of how politics works, and show that the Labour party really doesn’t.
Chris Leslie may be right. The National Living Wage may be all spin. It may be off-set by cuts in tax credits. It may not strictly meet the criteria for a National Living Wage as set out by the Living Wage Foundation.
But politically none of that matters. Because all people will see is the Conservative Party introducing legislation to force employers to raise their employees wages. And they will see Labour attacking them for it. And they will conclude – correctly – that the Labour party has lost its marbles. Or perhaps more accurately, that it still hasn’t found its marbles.
This is not rocket science: “Mr Leslie, you say you won’t criticise the Government just for the sake of it. Do you welcome the introduction of a National Living Wage?” “Yes. I do.”
After Chris Leslie had finished it was Shabana Mahmood’s turn to show the country what a new, constructive form of opposition looks like. During the election Labour had been calling for wage protection of £8 an hour. The Conservative party had just announced wage protection of £9 an hour. How would she like to respond? The Conservatives were guilty of “hypocrisy,” she said.
