Gordon Brown reckoned "A Future Fair For All" was the theme of the Blair Government

We are into "you couldn't make it up" territory.

Labour's election slogan, officially being unveiled today but revealed last night as "A Future Fair For All", is far from original.

Here is the second paragraph of Gordon Brown's speech to the 2003 Labour Party conference:

"A future fair for all is the theme not just of this conference, but of our government because whatever the success of the New Deal we cannot relax or rest or be satisfied. For today in Britain in 2003 too many of our citizens are still denied work, too many are low paid in their work, too many face poverty in retirement and our promise must be that for them too there will be social justice."

(NB He said that in 2003 too many people were denied work; does he need reminding that this very week the number of people claiming Job Seeker's Allowance hit a thirteen-year high??)

Blair also referred to the Future Fair For All theme in his own 2003 conference speech and, as in the picture above, the slogan was still being used towards the end of 2003 by Labour in promoting its Big Conversation initiative, whilst Tony Blair returned to the theme in a speech he gave in February 2004 on public services.

In fact, Blair even used it in the peroration of this pre-election speech during the 2005 campaign:

"We have never won a third term before. I ask you now for a mandate to do it, for our country and our party. For a future fair for all."

They got that mandate in 2005 and they blew it. What else is there to say?

Jonathan Isaby