by Sunny Hundal

Effectively dealing with the economic crisis is Labour’s last hope for re-election. So it’s rather bizarre that though Brown has recruited apparatchiks obsessed about honing the New Labour message, the response so far has been all over the place.

The polls show people want left-wing economic policies; they have no problems with bank nationalisations; they don’t trust the Tories on dealing with the crisis; and they gave Brown a chance once the economy nose-dived.

But the response has been all over the place. People aren’t obsessed about bank bonuses as much as they are about jobs. Jobs. They want to hear you talk about what will create jobs, New Labour, not what you’re doing about bank bonuses. And yet Brown keeps talking about banks.



John Prescott too keeps talking about bank bonuses. Mandelson should have slapped that populist and useless campaign down because it is a sideshow and a distraction.

Let’s be clear about one thing. While I’m tempted by Aaron’s view that people should just ‘suck it up’ because recessions are inevitable, this crash has just started. It will not only get more painful, but has the potential to seriously devastate millions of lives in Britain alone unless action is taken. It could also bankrupt our economy if we get caught in a vicious downward deflationary and debt spiral.

The Obama campaign in contrast has launched a website to talk about how his stimulus package is working through the economy and keeps saying how many jobs he hopes to save/create through the package (2.5m). I am yet unaware of any major announcements by this government to re-inforce the same message.

It was initially about the VAT cut (widely derided, quite rightly), then the Pound falling and now about bank bonuses. What the hell is Mandelson doing?

I also want to slap down the notion that the major dividing line between the Tories and Labour is still about who cares more about equality. It isn’t, thanks to Cameron’s rebranding exercise – it is very much is the economy and their approach to dealing with the financial crisis. Talking endlessly about equality, as political positioning, has gotten them nowhere in the last few years. Neither have their half-hearted policies. In contrast, it was the economy that produced the huge poll swings for the first time.

So Labour needs a strong plan and message about job creation; there’s no bigger concern on the minds of voters. On that I agree with Jon Cruddas MP’s analysis.

Where I disagree is his general set of recommendations about the economy. If the left is to develop a response to the crisis, we must first identify properly where the faults in the system lie. Just saying capitalism has failed (not Cruddas’ mantra), a vacuous soundbite that currently dominates the frontpage of New Statesman, is not good enough. (I’ll explore this more soon, but in the meantime this video below is excellent).

In the meantime, anyone who thinks Labour can ignore the economy and go back to traditional messages to win the election is seriously deluding themselves.



The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.