Red Ed and the stark choice facing Britain
WHAT a phoney election it is so far. The campaign has been dominated by contrived photo-opportunities in the leaders’ kitchens and soundbite-filled speeches delivered to tame audiences of party activists.
The public – and, more pertinently, the Press – have been avoided wherever possible for fear an awkward question might be asked.
The great issues of our time – the cuts needed to tackle the still awesome deficit, mass immigration, the dire shortage of housing and the march of Putin and Islamic State – have been utterly ignored.
Meanwhile, politicians compete over who can bribe us with most money (that doesn’t exist) and spew out such gimmicks as votes for 16-yearolds while making uncosted and unaffordable promises on the NHS and foreign aid.
How the Mail’s heart sinks at the impractical (and un-Conservative) Tory pledge to change the law to force larger employers – including the public sector – to give their staff three days’ paid leave every year to do voluntary work.
What is most worrying, however, is that voters (who appear to have a collective amnesia over the catastrophe Labour inflicted on the economy only five years ago) seem to believe there is very little difference between the major parties.
In reality, there is a greater ideological gap between the Tories and Labour than there has been for years.
The Conservatives are committed to a free market economy in which the State is reduced, balancing the nation’s books, controlling immigration, renegotiating our relationship with Europe, shrinking the self-reliance-sapping welfare state – while keeping a safety net for the genuinely unfortunate – and preserving the Union.
Ed Miliband is a quasi-Marxist with a messianic certainty in the power of the State to improve people’s lives. He favours ever more borrowing, unrestricted immigration, closer links with Europe, massive welfare spending and, oh yes, if he gets into power with the SNP could precipitate the break-up of a Union that has endured for 300 years.
The fact is he has contempt for big business, whose leaders he describes as ‘predators’. He believes – insanely – that he can fix prices and control rents.
The politics of envy is his default position. This week he announced the abolition of ‘non-dom’ tax status despite his own shadow chancellor admitting it will drive wealth creators overseas and could cost the Exchequer billions.
No wonder the pound is falling and that poll after poll shows business leaders are appalled at the prospect of a Miliband government.
Yet, with barely three weeks to go, Red Ed and David Cameron remain deadlocked in the polls, despite the fact that the Conservatives have transformed the British economy.
Which brings us to the Prime Minister. He now needs to summon the passion to explain to the electorate just how considerable that Tory financial achievement has been. A thousand jobs have been created every day – with countless people who had been condemned to a life on benefits by Labour helped back into work. Above all, Mr Cameron must take chances and break free of the shackles imposed on the Tory campaign by chief strategist Lynton Crosby. The promise of a same-day GP appointment for over-75s is welcome – but what a vote winner it would be if he ripped up Labour’s disastrous 2004 contract and insisted family doctors work out-of-hours. He must stop prevaricating and extend Mrs Thatcher’s right-to-buy revolution to housing association properties.
He must encourage other ministers to get on the stump. Jeremy Hunt, Iain Duncan Smith, Theresa May and Sajid Javid are all desperate to contribute. He must talk openly and honestly about the effect immigration is having on the Health Service, housing and schools.
The polls continue to show there is a conservative majority in this country and this week Mr Cameron appealed to Ukip voters to ‘come home’. If they are to do so, he needs to end the phoney election and produce firm policies on immigration, Europe and welfare.
With only 25 days to save Britain from Red Ed, the clock is ticking fast.