Labour's doomed four point plan for recovery

Ben Brogan sets out Labour's four point plan for recovery on his must-read blog.

Step one is to put the 10p thing behind them, step two to get past the memoirs, step three to do better than expected (having set the bar ridiculously low) in Crewe and Nantwich and step four to avoid defeat over the 42 day proposals.

As Ben points out these are internal objectives, all about survival and keeping the Parliamentary Labour party (PLP) onside. There is no hope of recovery if this is their plan.

Comments

[David Moss]

"... these are internal objectives, all about survival and keeping the Parliamentary Labour party (PLP) onside. There is no hope of recovery if this is their plan."

Or as I would put it, there is no government. There hasn't been since 2 May 2008. And there won't be until the next general election at least.

It promises to be a lovely time. Make the most of it!

[Corrupted Mind]

Quite frankly I'm tired of Labour's 3, 7, 10 point plans. Brown has to be thinking more like a Jihadi than a gentleman politician. Fact is - the economy is deteriorating, not into recession, but significantly enough for Jo Public to feel bad about it. The policy programs that he is being harangued and harassed about broadly aren't his. Labour MP's feel rebellious. It is easy to give the national government of the day a good kicking in the local elections because, quite frankly nothing much is going to change (unless, of course there is a burning local issue). The only weapon or plan that he should be executing, is a General Election in August/September. There are 2 really good reasons for doing so - firstly, it asks jo public are we really sick of Labour? If we are, then being removed now will be a blessing in disguise for Labour as they get to be in opposition while the economy goes tits up (wobbles). Initially they'll be blamed for eveything, but then people will forget as they get buried in Cameron's last minute hastily prepared (under cooked) manifesto that he tries to implement in the new environment. Labour then gains the ability to then say 4 yrs later - we told you they'd cock it up. Secondly, - he might win - he's lose quite a few MP's but the battle will reignite the tribalism that been lost in the last few landslides. Further, he'll lose the awkward bunch as they will now be bound up in his manifesto program. Most importantly, he gains 5 yrs to try and fix things rather than 2 yrs of being on the run from the Tories.

[Letters From A Tory]

No hope of recovery? Excellent news. Brown is fighting to keep his job, let alone devise some respectable new policies.

[David Moss]

The four-point plan appears to have a fifth point.

It's your old friend, the BNP "British jobs for British workers" slogan adopted by Labour and being deployed in the Crewe and Nantwich byelection in a peculiarly BNPish way, see John Harris's article in today's Guardian, 'The tactics of Crewe expose a truly nasty party: Labour', http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/15/crewebyelection08.labour

"Do you oppose making foreign nationals carry an ID card?" asks a Labour campaign leaflet.

Suppose you don't. Suppose you're all in favour of foreigners carrying ID cards. Well, bad news.

Sorry about this, but Jacqui Smith (the Home Secretary) and others are deceiving you.

You see, a lot of these foreigners are from the EU. Like the Poles Mr Harris mentions.

They're not UK citizens, so they can't have UK ID cards.

How about biometric visas? Those can only be forced on non-EEA nationals. It is illegal under EU law to try to force them on EEA nationals. Ukrainians, yes. Poles, no.

So, having stirred up another little bit of resentment, Mr Brown and Ms Smith can't even satisfy it.

They're offering a false prospectus. (The Stock Exchange would never allow that.)

And they're getting the worst of all possible worlds. All the opprobium of infringing people's civil liberties. To no effect.

Some people might find comfort in a competent Big Brother. But an incompetent one can satisfy no-one.