The news has recently been dominated by tit-for-tat politics, particularly over how to manage the economy. Much of the battle between Cameron and Miliband has been about who can deliver the better sound bite or one-liner, and who can provide the emptier piece of rhetoric.
The fact is that there’s very little that differentiates Labour and the Conservatives right now. Both are dominated by people from similar socio-economic and academic backgrounds, and are both chasing the same narrow band of middle class voters. Yet Labour still insist they are fundamentally different to the Conservatives without offering hard policy to show this. But there’s one simple action that Labour could take if they really want to show how different they are: produce a shadow budget.
Many of my Labour supporting friends will still maintain that Labour offers something tangibly different to the Conservatives. Speaking as someone with no real party allegiance I find this very difficult to agree with. Yes, we hear about a Labour push for shallower cuts and the increased taxation of higher earners. Nevertheless, they’ve failed to show that if elected tomorrow, they would reverse any of the fundamental elements of the Coalition’s economic policy. The following quote from Mary Ann Sieghart in the i last week provides a good summary:
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats say, “We understand your pain but there’s no alternative, and it’s going to have to get worse.” Labour says, “We understand your pain but we can only fiddle about at the edges to help you.”
That said, one move could change the whole situation – Labour giving us a shadow budget. If Labour really believes that the Coalition’s approach is wrong and that alternative tactics are better, then then why not produce something concrete (and evidence based) saying so? Labour surely has lots to gain from publishing a shadow budget? If they do it properly, they can show themselves as being economically competent, in touch with the opinions of the public, and offering a fundamentally different approach to the Coalition.
Annoyingly though, everyone knows that Labour won’t be producing a shadow budget anytime soon. There are only two reasons for this that I can think of. Firstly, Labour are playing it far too safe and are not willing to take the risk and leave themselves open to scrutiny.
More worryingly though, I think there’s a second factor at play. Labour can’t offer anything tangibly different to the Coalition and the party knows this. Because of this, they’ll make politics a competition about empty rhetoric and personality, not about policy or ideology. Then again, hasn’t politics always been like this?
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