Originally published @ 1:28 am, Fri 8th Jan 2010
Part of the frustration with the call for a leadership ballot, is that it took away political debate from the focus that Labour had been developing nicely on tax and public spending policy.
David Cameron had a nightmare on Monday as he changed his line three times on what was supposed to be a flagship policy. Michael White of the Guardian reports that Cameron admitted "I messed up" and that “Cameron's slip over marriage, symbolically so important to party activists, reinforces the flaky, uncosted quality of many Tory pledges.”
A flakiness that was being exposed by Labour’s scrutiny.
Gordon Brown had another successful Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. The success went beyond his joke on Cameron not being able to say “I do” or “I don’t” being better that the Cameron’s “Darling, I love you” joke.
Gordon Brown had picked up on another Cameron interview -
The Prime Minister: Last night he [David Cameron] was asked, “Are you committed to educational maintenance allowances?” What was his answer? “Let’s just say I’m not uncommitted to it”. He then said: “Well, we’re in a state of quite severe flux on this whole area…” “so I can’t give you a straight answer”.
"So I can’t give you a straight answer" ought to have been the quote of the day.
And now it’s reported that the Tories have dropped another pledge - to "build 5,000 prison places over and above Labour's plans, taking the total operational capacity in the estate to over 100,000". Labour has expanded prison capacity but not to the levels Cameron had previously said were necessary.
Now it’s suggested that some of the public are put off by political parties challenging each other. I can imagine people being put off by rudeness, or banality, triviality or barbarity.
But there has got to be a debate over serious matters such as tax and public spending.
And I’m pleased to see Labour promoting its plans for growth yesterday.
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