Tories promise "policy striptease" as Brown bores on

Gordon Brown was on Andrew Marr and Adam Boulton this morning.

It's not clear why Gordon Brown bothered.  He offered no new message - just the usual tired talk of listening and facing up to long-term challenges.  Mr Brown told Adam Boulton (who pressed the PM much harder than the deferential Marr)  that he wouldn't hold a 'put up or shut up' leadership challenge to his critics, as John Major did in 1995.

Thursday had been a referendum on Labour, Mr Brown said, but the next election would be a choice between Labour and the Conservatives.  He said that he "relished" the prospect of beating David Cameron at the next General Election.

If Brown bored the Conservatives plan to excite, says a leader in The Sunday Times.  The leader-writers say that the Conservatives "plan a slow striptease over the next two years to unveil the policies that will form the basis of their manifesto."

ConservativeHome understands that this "striptease" aims to address the "enthusiasm challenge" and will include a heavy emphasis on measures to tackle crime and school failure.  The social justice agenda is also going to be 'bigged up' as the party aims to build on lower income voters' loss of faith in Labour after the 10p fiasco.

And let's not forget the LibDems.  Professor John Curtice in The Sunday Telegraph notes that Thursday was also poor for them (our emphasis):

"Outside London the Liberal Democrat vote slipped for the fourth year in a row. With 25 per cent of the equivalent national vote, the party recorded its weakest local election performance for a decade.  Fortunately for Nick Clegg, his party's slide was masked by a modest net gain of 31 seats and Labour's even more dismal performance. But in London, where there was no such camouflage, the party's vote was down on 2004 by between five and six points in both the mayoral race and the assembly contests."

It is very significant that voters are deciding that a vote for the Conservatives, in this mid-term moment, is the best way to most punish Labour.  We now need to make sure that - come the General Election - voters understand that a vote for the Conservatives is the only sure way of ending Labour rule.

3pm video: Sky's 18 minute interview with Gordon Brown

Comments

[Tony Makara]

"He offered no new message"

Labour are currently like a person who is experiencing ill-health but is in denial and won't visit the doctor for fear of finding out the worst. All I have heard from Labour's leading lights since their crushing defeat on Thursday is how we have 'low inflation' 'more people in work' 'less crime' etc. They have no will, no stomach to face the problems that everyone in the country can see. Labour are terminally ill and in denial. Its almost as if the Labour party is exhibiting some type of Freudian death-wish and subconsciously harbours a desire to be annihilated at the next general election. Labour has lost the will to live, it is a dying animal longing to be put out of its misery.

[Dean]

Brown will win the next election. Tractor production is up 74%, new factories are being built at the rate of 3 per month, Tony is still in the Gulag and the average voter has 37 grams more bread per week than under the imperial regime.

Voters warm to this as they displayed on Thursday.

[Alex Swanson]

measures to tackle crime

Super, mine's a 0.38" Webley

and school failure.

Erm, thought we'd been told those. But better ones would be good (seeing as how I keep falling asleep when trying to find out what the current ones are)

a vote for the Conservatives is the only sure way of ending Labour rule.

Just so long as more changes than the label.

[Jamie]

Brown wasn't particularly bad on the BBC, where the questioning was at best gentle and sympathetic. However, he was awful on Sky. Adam Boulton was really quite rude to him and Brown failed to make any major coherent points. I particularly liked the part where he criticised Brown's cabinet. It's true that they're missing big beasts like Reid, Clarke and Blunkett. Perhaps he might have a re-shuffle, although Brown would hate to have anyone around the table who he couldn't completely control.

[Jake]

I would not underestimate Labour. Sure, they are in a fugue at the moment and have reverted to quoting combine-harvester production figures for a while as they find this reassuring. However,they won't always be in this mode and are likely to come out fighting before too long. Even rigid old Gordon Brown might display remarkable qualities of flexibility when faced with political extinction.

One major area of flexibility and surprise is constitutional. The Left are rapidly getting to grips with England and Englishness - just read the Guardian if you are in any doubt about this. They know in their hearts that England has been the loser so far in devolution. What is more the are in the process of admitting it to themselves.

Let no one be surprised if Mr Brown proclaims that Labour is now committed to the the principle of an English parliament within the United Kingdom. There are still large swathes of England which are foreign territory to the Conservatives because they are naturally Labour. Generally,they didn't vote Tory the other day they just stayed at home.

Labour need to give England a reason for voting for them again . The politics of economics and managerial competence are steadily passing over to the Conservatives. When push comes to shove at a general election it is not necessarily the case that this will imply a win for them other than a minor one.
If Labour suddenly come out for a referendum in England on the subject of an English parliament and the promise of an England Act if this is approved, all easily do-able within the next two years, then the Conservatives, apart from looking pretty stupid, could well see their present lead evaporate.

[Richard North]

But combine harvester production is up ...

The only problem is, they're German!

http://www.stackyard.com/news/2005/04/Machinery/claas.html

[Tony Makara]

Just going through the Brown/Marr interview again. Gordon Brown talks about how 'We' will be cutting interest-rates so much for the independence of the Bank of England. The interesting point to note here is that any attempt at this time to cut interest-rates is going to push up the cost of EU food imports and create serious inflationary pressures. Gordon Brown does not seem aware that such a scenario will happen, this is very worrying. Does this man understand the relationship between interest-rates and forex markets? At this time we should be looking to close the widening differential between Sterling and the Euro, not increasing it by cutting rates at the very time the ECB pursues an anti-inflationary policy. I am very worried about this and wonder if George Osborne might make a statement on this matter?

[F]

SuperCam?

[Christina Speight]

You quote prof John Curtice in the S.Telegraph saying that the LibDem vote slipped. DID IT? OK the percentage may have slipped but did the VOTE slip. It may have done but nobody quotes the figures. Similarly the 44% Tory figure could easily be a result of Labour abstentions. DID the Tories get more votes? Without the facts this is all "spin" eg based on percentages it could be that nobody new voted Tory at all - just Labour staying at home?

[StevenAdams]

Christine:

Though you're right that these figures are important, personally I think the most important thing is that we remember that the day was a real success.

Results like this can often enforce a self-fulfilling prophecy situation where govt panic, credibility of the opposition and public confidence on the opposition become a spiralling issue for Gotdon et al.

There's still a mountain to climb, some canny positioning and policy manouevres and a lot of footwork - but that is the case for all three major parties. If we build on this success then we are in the driving seat, in my opinion.

[Christina Speight]

Steven Adams @ 1134, It was NOT necessarily a success at all. You've fallen uinto the trap that because Labour collapsed that the Tories did well.

It could be that all Cameron did was sit tight, saying nothing at all and scavenging successes from the corpses of fallen Labour seats.

The election was won by the Tories without a single decisive theme to attract more votes. Indeed this morning the party merely talks of “Labour has let people down and we can be a better government”. That’s it folks. No dream; no theme; no ‘Get off the backs of the people’; no ‘Let people run their own lives’; no ‘Lift the tax burden’ or even ‘Make taxes fairer’. Just ‘we can run Labour’s failed system better than they do’. What an inspiration ! What a rallying cry to fight for!

Poll after poll shows that the public want a radical change of direction, but they won’t get it with Cameron. He is wedded to ignoring them just as NewLabour have done for 11 years. He will benefit over the belated crisis over the 10p tax band. He will gain from rows over the 42 day detention period. He could possibly gain from an upset in the Crewe by-election. But these are all sound and fury signifying nothing.

Meanwhile Cameron is stubborn in refusing to respond forcefully to the demand of 85% of the population for a referendum on the EU Constitution. He will not spell out what his policy is and he has left it to Hague to welcome, very quietly, Stuart Wheeler’s brilliant attempt to put a spoke in the wheels of the Eurocrats. If he had really cared about this it would have been David Cameron standing up for Britain in the courts.

I like my local Tories - they are wedded to cutting taxes and have done so . But I have no time for the wet Cameroons now basking in the sunshine not of anything they have done but of Labour idiocies.

[Dominic]

Subject: LIST OF NEW LABOURS MISTAKES

The following points have hurt the nation’s economy, hurt the taxpayer and prevented them from having the chance of a referendum on our sovereignty all due too New Labour. Below is a list it should be repeated at every opportunity to the media and if anybody can add to the list please feel free.
In interviews over the weekend with various Labour Ministers including Brown a question was asked time and time again how many things have New Labour got wrong ?the answer was always the same the eradication of the 10% tax level only.

Raid on pensions
Selling of gold reserves at lowest price and announcing it before selling which forced the price down.
Introduction of HIP’S which put the cost of £500 to every seller and has no interest to mortgage companies.
10% tax level eradicated and new route to compensate with tax credits which will cost a fortune on administration costs.
No referendum on treaty
Not being competitive with company tax which is forcing companies to re locate to other countries
Student fees on education
Highest debt level in Europe
Council tax quadrupled in some areas since 1997
Full rates charged since April on commercial empty buildings.
Very large contribution for all London Boroughs on rates for Olympics
New car tax on old cars which will cost an extra £200 to poorer families
Tax on dividends on Isa’s and Peps introduced
Very high tax on petrol highest in Europe
No change on threshold levels on stamp duty although house prices have become nearly out of reach of first time buyers
Inheritance tax bands have hardly been increased despite massive increases on house prices over eleven years.
Most complicated tax scheme in Europe.
Congestion charges on a very wide band in London with hardly any difference to traffic jams
Small businesses badly affected by congestion charges on borders of entry.
Closure of post offices
To much red tape for businesses of all sizes
Incompetence with private personal data across government departments
Erosion of civil liberties
How many Government and non Government Agencies have been given access to private data and allowed to tap phones?