Unions should stamp on Lib-Lab talk

Submitted by martin on 9 May, 2011 - 3:35

Labour did poorly - in the circumstances - on 5 May, because its political message, against cuts "too far and too fast", was weak and mumbling.

Labour leader Ed Miliband's response has been to shift into even more weak and mumbling mode.

He has upped his calls for Lib Dem MPs to "come and work with us. My door is always open".

Obviously Miliband does not expect the Lib Dems suddenly to break their coalition with the Tories and go for a coalition government with Labour (which would, apart from anything else, not even have a majority in Parliament).

The cunning scheme here is for a Lib-Dem/ Labour coalition after a general election in 2015. It means:

● Tying Labour's future politics to what the Lib Dems, the champions of "progressive cuts", will accept.
● Signalling that Labour's opposition to cuts is no more than a spelled-out version of the reservations and quibbles which Lib-Dem ministers express about their own coalition's programme, and that Labour has nothing much distinct to say for itself.
● Signalling that Labour has already inwardly accepted that it won't win the next general election.
● Signalling that Labour works on the assumption that the coalition government will run its full course, to 2015.

Miliband's drift is bad enough. Worse is the fact that none of the big Labour-affiliated unions have criticised him on this, or even said a word to demand that Labour campaign strongly against cuts.

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