Last week I discussed the importance of
re-framing political discourse away from the Tory narrative of ‘cleaning up
Labour’s mess.’ This will not be enough to prise David Cameron away from 10
Downing Street. Ed Miliband must present a credible alternative to the
electorate, in the process explaining why the Labour Party offers the hope of a
much better future than the current government.
He started this process at Brighton in
September, rebuffing ‘policy-lite’ critics by offering a compelling list of
meaty policies. The upper echelons of the Labour party know that 19 months out
from polling day, it is not possible or sensible to lay all of their cards on
the table, yet. Brighton served up a tasty hors d’oeuvre of what is potentially
to come.
Having failed to cut through at either the
2011 or 2012 conferences, Brighton 2013 may prove to be a turning point in
Miliband’s relationship with the British people. His abstract musings on
‘predatory capitalism’ and ‘pre-distribution’ in 2011, and his resurrection of
Disraeli’s ‘One-nation’ dictum in 2012 may have had the academic world nodding
in appreciation, but did nothing to dispel his ‘geeky’ image constructed since acceding
to the Labour throne in 2010.
Lets look at his 2013 offerings:
Housing
Miliband placed plenty of emphasis on the housing sector, where they view the
coalition as having failed miserably. Miliband
announced an ambitious scheme of increasing construction to 200,000 homes a
year by 2020 (this is an increase on pre-crash building rates). This was the
eye-catching policy, but was substantiated by proposals for an influx of garden
cities, the ‘right to grow’ for urban areas and a threat to confiscate unused
land from landholders, who are refusing to build. A propitious line for
Miliband’s team has been to begin attacking Osborne’s housing policies as
distorting the recovery and creating the beginnings of another housing bubble.
Expect housing to be at the forefront of party sparring in the next 18 months.
Childcare
Ed Balls announced plans to offer working
parents of 3-4 year-olds 25 hours of free childcare a week if Labour to win in
2015. In a highly populist movement, Balls promised to raise the banking levy
by £800 million a year to fund this offer. This would see an increase of 10
free hours a week.
The
Bedroom Tax
Labour’s promise to repeal the highly
unpopular Bedroom tax took the form of a firm manifesto commitment. The two
Ed’s have demonstrated their dedication to illustrate an ironclad fiscal hand
by setting out how Labour will raise the £470m that the Treasury has claimed
this tax will save a year. Playing on the Tory ‘standing up for the privileged
few’ theme, Miliband has stated that he will reverse the £150m tax cut for
hedge funds, announced by Osborne in the 2013 budget. Miliband has also
expressed a desire to abolish Osborne’s ‘shares for rights scheme’, and stop
construction firms from avoiding tax by listing workers as ‘self-employed.’
This may prove the most popular of the offerings from Brighton, with a ComRes
poll published at the end of September showing 59% of the public believes the
tax should be repealed. Nearly 80% of Labour voters are behind the proposal to
abolish the tax.
The
OBR
One announcement that should be ignored at
your peril was included in Balls’ speech. This was his announcement that he’d
ask the OBR to audit Labour’s spending plans when in power. This is another
ploy to regain the trust of the electorate on the economy, and another popular
one with the voters.
The
big one- Energy prices
Finally, the big one. Put simply, Miliband
announced that Labour would freeze gas and electricity bills for every home and
business in the UK for 20 months if they win the 2015 election. In taking on
the ‘Big 6’ energy companies, Miliband is seeking to draw his lines in the sand
and frame the debate in his language. He wishes to self-anoint himself as the
head of the ‘little people’, portraying the Tories as the party of the rich.
Easily enough for him, it is well known that the energy companies have raked in
record profits in the past year and are grossly overcharging their customers.
I’ll focus my next piece on the
political/economic ramifications of this policy and the reactions from all
across the political spectrum.
What you see above resembles the outline of
what Labour’s 2015 manifesto may look like. Miliband has really struck a chord
with his cost of living message, but it is too early to see whether his
post-Brighton bounce can be sustained, and whether Labour can continue to look
ahead to 2014 and beyond with renewed hope. This is an alternative to the
turbo-charged austerity of the Tories. Whether this brings Miliband closer to
his prize remains to be seen.
