By Nicky Dempsey
The growing recognition that the 2015 election is Labour’s to lose has led to increasing rightwing pressures on the Labour leadership to maintain the essential thrust of ‘austerity’ policy.
The overwhelmingly Tory press focuses on the demand that Ed Miliband in particular commits to maintaining Tory spending plans.
By Nicky Dempsey and Jane West
The media consensus on the assessment of both the Labour and Tory conferences indicates a growing acceptance of the political consequences of what the polls are showing – that Labour looks set to win the next General Election or at worst be the largest party, and this will occur under Ed Miliband’s leadership.
By Jane West
The combination of the news that the UK economy remains in a double dip recession with July’s sharp and unpredicted increase in public sector borrowing were widely recognised as still further evidence that the disastrous ‘deficit cutting’ strategy of Osborne and the coalition government is failing.
By James Wilkins
The latest economic figures showing that the British economy shrank in the last quarter of 2011 underlines the damage that Tory economic policy is causing – both to growth and living standards. A clear alternative to its ‘austerity’ policies is needed, but the Labour front bench’s recent further capitulation to the Tory economic framework weakens both the struggle for such an alternative and its own electoral position.
By Stephen MacAvoy
On 13 January Ed Balls, previewing a speech to the Fabians, launched a new Labour policy – that Labour supported the Tory-led governments public sector pay freeze and it would start from a baseline of maintaining Tory cuts.
By Stephen MacAvoy
The election of Ed Miliband as Labour leader has dealt a significant blow to the Blairite tendency within the Labour Party. That current failed to regain the party leadership and is further weakened by the withdrawal of David Miliband from frontbench politics. Far from damaging Labour’s electoral chances as a range of Blairites have warned, this actually offers the opportunity to move away from the unpopular policies of the Blair era.
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