Things are Looking Bleak for Labour...

So Labour's been in power for 18 months or so now and it's another painful story of some initial relief and now downright pessimism about where they are headed, it all looks a bit bleak, maybe it's because the party is just not build to govern?

Labour is, at the end of the day, a movement built out of a century of class politics, union solidarity, and ideological conviction. Its "base setting," is to distrust profit, distrust markets, and distrust the people who run them.

Labour emerged from the trade union movement... and a substantial number of its members see it as "the party of the people" - which often translates as the party which must protect the people from the market.

And it is this worldview which creates a certain friction whenever Labour tries to enact market-friendly reforms - because this normally means tax cuts, and this is something which just isn't in Labour's DNA, and MAN didn't the last budget highlight that!

Tough Times

This current Labour government of course as it REALLY TOUGH... is't not just the national debt, the slow growth, and the small boats, there's also the ageing population looming and none of these vanish because a manifesto says they will.

Treasury officials, bond markets, OBR reports, and international comparisons are now piling up. Britain isn't growing fast enough to fund its ambitions. The IFS and Resolution Foundation warn the UK is entering the worst decade for living standards since records began.

Labour's internal culture starts pulling.

I think we saw that in the latest budget, a giving in to the back benchers.... maintaing public spending while doing literally nothing to get the economy moving again.

Ideology wins, but there's no money to pay for the noble support.

We're screwed...

But then again, we would probably be screwed under any government.

I need to build a bunker!