I’ve lost count of how many women I’ve seen pushing empty pushchairs around Oxford recently. As one walks past, there is a noticeable transition between making eye-contact with the pusher, looking at the childless seat, and re-establishing eye-contact accompanied by some facial contortion that is meant to represent puzzlement but probably looks more like a pre-sneeze face. Other people in the street look incredulously at each other, their faces screaming ‘she does know that there’s no child, right?’ Whether the root cause of this epidemic is child theft or a surplus of pushchairs in the Oxfordshire area is unclear. But the man in the street is right to be incredulous; he knows something is missing.
“…a Faberge egg for every 5 year old”
And so it is with politics. Despite the General Election campaign starting pretty much straight after new year, something is missing: detail. Both parties are pledging to cut public spending to reduce the budget deficit after the election. Neither have identified how this will happen. Labour carries on announcing big ticket expenditure items such as aircraft carriers, super-fast rail links, and a Faberge egg for every 5 year old, whilst simultaneously presiding over one of the largest ever cuts in capital spending the UK has seen. Despite the cut actually being quite sensible (and something that the Tories would laud if they were in government), Labour can’t make political capital from it because to do so would massively annoy their grassroots and the unions (from whom an increasingly broke party receives regular lifesaving cash-infusions).
So far this year, Gordon Brown has already faced another move against his leadership. Labour Leadership Crisis is one of those phrases that over the past two years seems to come and go like phases of the moon- unfortunately for Labour, all these leadership crises manage to demonstrate is how many of the Prime Minister’s own side dislike him, but also how inept the Parliamentary Labour Party are at organising anything. The fact that the latest rebellion was entrusted to Geoff Hoon, widely remembered as Buff-Hoon when Defence Secretary, seemed to doom the coup before it began. Given a bottle of whiskey, a revolver, and instructions to blow his brains out, Hoon could probably be relied on to miss. Yet despite this, the Tories have seen their poll lead drop to hung parliament territory.
There are several reasons for this dip in Tory support. Firstly, the latest coup seems perversely to have strengthened the PM; this is reflected by a more bellicose style at Prime Minister’s Questions which has left Dave literally red-faced at times. Secondly, Cameron has scored own goals on too many occasions this year. First it was tax breaks for married couples, a policy that changed three times in one day. Then this week, Osborne’s position of cutting ‘deeper and faster’ than Labour was undermined by Cameron saying that cuts wouldn’t come in the first year of a Tory Government. The public understandably are finding it increasingly difficult to discern how the Tories will differ from Labour in office when Tory policy seemingly changes by the minute.
“there is a real chance he might snatch defeat from the jaws of victory”
Cameron’s dilemma is placating the right wing of his party in a way that doesn’t undo his attempts to detoxify the Tory brand. The own goals owe as much to party considerations as they do to a lack of confidence. As much as he may want to give away free puppies on the NHS there is a significant number of his party who like nothing more than to needlessly poke said puppies with knitting needles. What we end up with then is vacillation and vagueness; whilst Dave might not have the tracksuit, middle-aged waddle, slightly dazed look, or chair bereft of its juvenile payload, scrutiny is not favouring him or his party at the moment. The public is aware that something is missing from the debate, and if Cameron doesn’t regain his touch soon, there is a real chance he might snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
