Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Labour admit it may cut further
The report in today's Telegraph on Labour's relaunch must surely undermine that party's opposition to the UK Government's austerity measures.The two Eds appear to have moved on from blind opposition to a stance of saying that Labour may be forced to go further in cutting parts of public spending than current Coalition plans. This recognition of economic realities is welcome and should put paid to the antics of Labour activists and trade unionists around the country, including Peter Hain, who believe that all they have to do is to oppose everything the Government does to get re-elected:
'The party’s high command admitted it could not promise to reverse any of the Government’s tax rises or cuts after the next election, due in 2015.
Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, admitted that Labour still lacked “credibility” and warned that even under his party, there “would have to be cuts”.
“There would have to be difficult decisions,” he said. “We would have to have cuts in police. We’d have to have cuts in the schools budget. We’d have to have cuts in the defence budget.
No doubt much of this will appear on Liberal Democrat leaflets and be quoted back at Labour politicians over the next few months.
