Iain Duncan Smith's performance on Question Time last night was, by some distance, the most impressive I've ever seen by a party politician. Like most, I used to view the man as a bit of a joke, but the way he has taken the time in Opposition to look, seriously and without ideological baggage, at the most shamefully neglected part of British life - the hopeless, inescapable benefit-dependent sink estates - is admirable.
Ed Miliband's obviously-stupid rant about the IDS proposal to help mobility within these areas being an 'on yer bike' measure was depressing to hear. Balls and Miliband Minor have failed to understand the zeitgeist. People see the Coalition as a temporary period of grown-up politics and want it to succeed. In the power vacuum, Labour is doing itself damage with old-skool party sniping. Lacking an identity, it has become clearly identifiable only as the Nasty Party. Their best option was to take a similarly grown-up 'we're all in this together' tone and wait for the cuts to make CamCleggism unpopular as a matter of course. It is becoming increasingly clear that David Miliband is the only credible candidate from the five on offer.
2 comments:
Its not in the self interest of the labour party to address the simple truth that they have replaced the family with state.
The more networks you have in life the more secure and richer and happier you are. At the bottom networks are at a premium.
The labour party for in the most part to blame for the rise of the underclass, they are nothing better than a common drug pushers.
They should look at todays figures on health inequality in shame.
But they wont, its not in their interest.
Iain Dale agrees with your estimate of IDS, so he says on his blog. As does Mary Beard and SImon Heffer apparently. IDS has managed one miracle already, it seems.
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