Listening to Labourites on the radio this evening it's all so reminiscent of 1996.
Peter Hain has just been on Five Live suggesting that people look behind the Cameron smile. We used to go on endlessly and fruitlessly about Blair's fake grin.
On the PM programme, a union leader (Derek Simpson, I think) was talking about Brown being great in private. If only more people could see the real Brown, he complained. Tory Cabinet ministers said exactly the same about 'the private John Major'. If only he could meet every voter in the country, we said, the Tories could still win. [In John Major's case it was a lot more true].
There's John Prescott attacking the Labour leadership for not talking about its achievements. That was the standard complaint of the average Tory activist in 1996.
And then there are the constant attacks on the Tories. There's no positive Labour message. We, in 1996, were obsessed with New Labour, too.
How long until there are crying lions and devil eyes?
