The much maligned Ed Milliband has succeeded in achieving the biggest change in the dynamics of British politics since Margaret Thatcher. By shifting Labour to the left he has set the Tories free to move to the Right. The centre ground, where both parties stood through the Major, Blair and Brown years, following similar pro-market policies, is now vacated; a windswept no man’s land inhabited by a few wandering Lib Dems who have lost their way. This is the best thing to happen in British politics for a generation.
Consensus is good but only if it is about good things. Thatcher did some good things, especially instilling responsibility into the Unions, but a lot of her legacy is bad. Brown, more than Blair, defined the reign of the New Labour, outside their foreign policy and going to lots of wars. Essentially it was a Thatcher philosophy with human touches and much tinkering at the margins. In the end the public got fed up with the political class which jointly orchestrated the biggest bust in history, supported silly wars, failed to build needed power stations so that energy security is now lost and allowed the rich to grow richer, some stinkingly so, whilst the poor got poorer to the point of food bank dependency.
Housing costs are out of control and have to be subsidised by the taxpayer, while some privatisations worked, those of the monopoly public utilities like electricity, gas and water have not and the public finances are in disarray, with the connection between what is collected in revenue and what is spent by government severed. The annual deficit, in spite of all the cuts, is set to run at over £160 billion still.
This blog will not take sides, but Ed has signalled that his party has some questions to ask the market and some demands to make of fat cat utility corporations. This is the first reproach many of the people, who think they are worth millions annually each to do quite straightforward jobs, have ever heard and they do not like it. Meanwhile Ed has dominated the Tory conference and the media while it has been going on. Cameron’s speech today is crafted as a response to Ed. David will shift the Tories to the right because his party believes that the mythical legions of hard working people dwell there . Do they?
There is now before us the most robust, ill tempered and longest general election campaign most have known. At the end of it that question will be answered. No longer will it be possible to dismiss the political class as all the same. This must be an improvement and it is essential requirement for building better times. Whichever side you are on.
One more thing. This time there is a joker in the pack. Nigel Farage. He could be bad news for everybody but especially for Cameron and the Tories. His policy is simple. Blame everything on immigrants and the EU. And sod global warming, we will build power stations and keep the lights on. He could find a lot of takers.