Time running out to halt lurch to the Left
HOW dispiriting that Nicola Sturgeon and Len McCluskey – general secretary of the Unite union – are in cahoots, each preparing to pull hapless Ed Miliband further to the Left. Miss Sturgeon says Mr Miliband has been bullied by the Tories into ruling out a formal pact with her SNP.
Boasting she will wield ‘enormous clout’ at Westminster after the election – as a new poll shows the SNP taking an astonishing 32-point lead over Labour – she warned the Labour leader would have no choice but to deal with her.
And she vowed to ‘change the direction’ of a Labour government if it is forced to rely on her support – a lurch to the Left to suit the SNP’s reckless tax, borrow and spend policies.
Meanwhile, Red Len – whose union is Labour’s biggest donor – is drooling over the prospect. He praises Mr Miliband’s ‘ radical’ policies, particularly those grounded in the politics of envy such as the mansion tax and the 50p income tax rate.
He predicts ominously that the country is on the ’brink of change’ and, if he’s right, it will be a change very much for the worse.
For he is also full of praise for Mr Miliband’s planned repeal of what he calls ‘some of the worst anti-union’ laws via a commission headed by John Monks, the former general secretary of the TUC.
The hearts of hard-working Britons will sink at those words, a portent of a return to the worst days of the Seventies when militant unions crippled industry with impunity.
Those of us who have watched Britain crawl painfully from the wreckage of the global crash can only shake our heads in wonder.
The route to recovery has been long and difficult and just as we are beginning to reap the rewards, the emerging hard-Left alliance is determined to throw it all away with crowd- pleasing promises that spending like a sailor on shore leave will end our troubles. The talk is of progressive policies, but the reality is more penury than progress.
Perhaps belatedly, the Prime Minister has woken up to the horror of this prospect and yesterday injected some genuine passion into the Tory campaign – rolling up his sleeves and promising to stand up for ‘the grafters’ of Britain.
It is those self-same grafters who have done the heavy lifting to drag Britain to the head of European growth leagues in terms of job creation and the economy.
They are the ones with most to lose from a puppet Labour government dancing to the tune of the twin hard-Left voices of Miss Sturgeon and Mr McCluskey.
Chancellor George Osborne also took energetically to the stump, issuing a heartfelt and timely plea for voters to act to prevent the very real threat of a Labour/SNP government and promised a ‘ crusade f or the people of Middle Britain’.
The Chancellor vowed to take action on the 40p tax threshold, which has sucked in more and more middle-class families in every Budget, if the Tories win outright next week.
With eight days to go and the UK polls tilting slightly in his favour, it’s not too late for Mr Cameron to secure the Tory majority he needs to save the country from ruin. But there is no time to lose. He will have to fight for every vote.