Labour party: Don't be fooled, they would soon send us the way of Greece

Labour party: Don't be fooled, they would soon send us the way of Greece

By Simon Heffer

PUBLISHED: 16:48 EST, 25 May 2012 | UPDATED: 16:15 EST, 26 May 2012

The Labour Party is doing an excellent job of creating an illusion of electability. After all the criticism it endured a few months ago about its lack of policies and, indeed, its lack of a serious leader, the weather has suddenly changed.

In the small world of Westminster politics, Labour seems to have the advantage. Not least, it’s facing a Government that reels from one crisis to another, led by a ‘chillaxing’ Prime Minister who merely responds to events rather than leads.

As Melanie Phillips wrote in last Monday’s Mail, the Tories face the prospect of an Opposition that is more Right-wing than they are. Indeed, that is a clever part of the illusion of its electability.

Labour leader Ed Miliband (left) and Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls are making 'Right-wing' statements in a bid to appear more electable

Of course, a general election is not due for another three years. So Labour politicians can happily say ‘Right- wing’ things â€" such as suggesting a referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the EU â€" because it will be some time before they are called upon to act on their words.

However, the next election is not necessarily three years away. Indeed, if certain circumstances prevailed, it’s not fanciful to suggest there could be a change in government in a matter of weeks â€" with Mr Mili band subsequently ensconced in No 10.

This scenario is possible as a result of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act â€" an insidious law slipped through Parliament, overturning one of the central tenets of the British constitution.

The beauty of the British constitution was that a prime minister had the right to go to the monarch at any time and ask for a dissolution of Parliament, thus triggering an election. This was especially useful at times of crisis, such as in the economic meltdown of 1931.

However, and purely to help this coalition stay in power for five years by removing the scope for one partner to threaten another with walking out and forcing an election, the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill was cynically rushed through last year.

There was hardly a word of explanation, and no mandate from the voters.

Although it means parliamentary terms are fixed at five years and it removed the Queen’s prerogative power to dissolve Parliament, there are some circumstances that could lead to a change of government. These include the Government resigning or the passing of a no-confidence motion in the Commons.

It is possible, therefore, that if the Lib Dems decided to end the Coalition, a weakened David Cameron might find himself unable to govern on his own and have to step aside and let Ed Miliband see if he could form a government.

If Labour thus came to power, the illusion of the party as a responsible, sensible political force would immediately be put to the test. And I suspect the illusion would be shattered the moment Mr Miliband tried to tackle the economic crisis.

In the meantime, Labour continues shamelessly to present itself as the saviour of the country’s horrific economic problems â€" problems of which it was largely the architect when last in power.

Such disingenuousness is typical of modern politics.

What shocks me is t hat so few voters appear outraged by this behaviour. Perhaps they already have such a low opinion of the political class that it is impossible for it to be driven any lower. Or perhaps it is a testament to the shortness of memories and the disengagement of many voters from political issues.

I fear there is another reason. ‘Austerity’ has become a dirty word. Any politician who goes on TV to denounce ‘cuts’ commands instant public sympathy â€" even Ed Balls, the abrasive shadow chancellor who ought still to be tainted by his part in Labour’s economic disaster.

So when Mr Cameron foolishly called Mr Balls a ‘muttering idiot’ in the Commons on Wednesday, it was the Prime Minister who looked diminished, not Mr Balls.

Mr Balls apart, Labour’s shadow economics team is a capable bunch â€" especially Rachel Reeves, MP for Leeds West. She is wheeled out increasingly often by party managers to criticise a Government economic policy t hat, to be honest, is ripe for criticism.

Shadow chief Treasury secretary Rachel Reeves is a professional economist with degrees from Oxford and the LSE

Miss Reeves, 33, is a professional economist with degrees from Oxford and the LSE. That does not, of course, mean that she is right in her analyses; but it does mean she speaks the same language as bankers (she worked for the Bank of England and HSBC). When she talks about the economy, she is very plausible.

Contrast her with the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Chloe Smith, Tory MP for Norwich North. Miss Smith is not an economist, and once worked for a firm of accountants in their public affairs department.

When she was appointed in October it was reported â€" and has never been denied â€" that Mr Cameron thought she was an accountant and therefore was suited to the Treasury.

He also wanted a woman in the post, it was said, to alleviate fears among women voters about the Government’s ill-advised child benefit reforms.

When tokenism drives appointments, accidents happen and the Opposition has been able to capitalise on them.

This week, BBC2’s Newsnight reported that Miss Smith had refused to debate on air with Miss Reeves. It can be safely assumed that this was not because lightweight Miss Smith was reluctant to crush her opponent in argument.

It is also indicative of the talent deficit in the Tory Party compared with Labour. Labour’s advantage in having numerous highly-educated front-benchers does not make them right, though, when it comes to political judgment. It does, however, make them plausible. It gives them that illusion of electability.

It is easy to imagine a public worn down by austerity, depressed by recession and harbouring a general discontent with Brussels might feel attracted by a party that says austerity must end, and that it might call a referendum on our membership of the EU.

This illusion of electability is strengthened when these views are articulated by such reasonable people as Miss Reeves, or by Douglas Alexander, the similarly highly-educated and urbane shadow foreign secretary.

However, Mr Balls’s idea of borrowing more money and reducing the country’s £122 billion deficit more slowly is alarmingly similar to what the Greeks were proposing a few years ago. Just look what happened to them.

In 2010, our Government debt was 80 per cent of gross domestic product. Next year it is forecast to be 95 per cent. That’s higher than Spain’s. To seek to increase it further is simply deranged: we need to do the opposite.

It is possibl e to cut spending without further retarding growth. I have long believed that lower spending could finance the tax cuts that the International Monetary Fund has this week warned may become necessary to boost an ever more ailing economy by the autumn.

But that is not what Labour intends: it is still wedded to the policy of ramping up public spending in a way that got us into this catastrophic state in the first place.

In any case â€" as already noted â€" it is deeply hypocritical for Labour to attack the Coalition, which is trying to address a crisis of Labour’s own making.

For its part, we know only too well how Labour acts in an economic crisis. Between the banking collapse in the autumn of 2008 and its eviction from power in May 2010, Labour made matters worse by its incontinent borrowing.

Lest we forget: Greece has already endured riots, protests and political upheaval. Had Labour won the last election, British markets would have put the economy in a similar position to Greece's within days.   

Had it won the last election, terrified financial markets would have put our economy in a similar position to Greece’s within days, and it insults the public’s intelligence to pretend otherwise.

Indeed, it is my belief that the last Labour government cynically knew all along it was creating a mess that others would have to clean up.

Given recent event s in the eurozone, though, the question of which particular bunch of incompetents tries to run our economy could soon become largely irrelevant.

Greece looks certain to leave the euro after (or possibly even before) its new elections next month. It would do so in a ‘disorderly’ fashion because of the ostrich-like refusal of the eurozone’s leaders to prepare responsibly for the eventuality.

It is quite possible that would trigger a domino effect in other tottering European economies.
There would follow a wave of bank failures; a crash in stock markets; the ravaging of pension funds; a slump in demand; and the collapse of businesses great and small.

This would be proof that Labour’s policies are utterly foolhardy and that Mr Miliband’s team is as bankrupt of ideas about how to save the economy as the Coalition is.

Borrowing money, or printing more of it, would simply hasten Britain’s progress to Greek-style bankr uptcy and financial implosion, wrecking living standards of Britons for a generation, and quite possibly longer.

And that is why Labour’s electability remains an illusion.

I wish the SNP well in its campaign for independence, launched yesterday, because the sooner their country is off the English payroll, the better.

The Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, protested on Radio 4’s Today programme that Scotland ‘pays its way’ in the United Kingdom.

I look forward to the ceremonial presentation to her of their share of the national debt (which has been estimated at £270 billion).

Forget the problems facing Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, now it has been revealed that he was cheer-leading for Rupert Murdoch’s bid to take over BSkyB.

What about the position of Dave Cameron, who assigned him the quasi-judicial role of deciding upon the bid despite knowing of Hunt’s extreme partiality?

I suspect Cameron’s blatant cronyism towards his friends at News Corp will be punished heavily by the electorate.

• Honour student who works two jobs to support her siblings...
• Parents' outrage after girl flashes her naked crotch under...
• How the Wild West REALLY looked: Gorgeous sepia-tinted...
• Revealed: Hundreds of words to avoid using online if you...
• Millionaire on the run: How the man who founded software...
• How the 63 stone teenager who had to be cut from her home in...
• Woman stuns tourists by walking topless round Manhattan
• Tragedy as mom finds daughter and grandchildren aged two and...
• Unbelievable video shows how strong winds can lift a parked...
• Brothers bullied and beaten for having full-grown breasts...
• Man goes to hospital with a kidney stone... and discovers...
• Robert Kennedy Jr 'had an affair with jilted wife of his...

Share this article: