ANALYSIS:Gordon Brown yesterday promised a message of reform and change – despite being in power for 13 years and with no money in the kitty
POLITICIANS IN power struggle to re-invent themselves, so yesterday Labour turned to a 20-year-old blogger, Ellie Gellard, and a backdrop image of a sun-kissed field of grain to push its case to the British people.
Gellard, who tweets endlessly as BevaniteEllie, has become something of an internet star and she urged all to pass on word of Labour’s election manifesto by each and every means possible.
Youtube, she said, was only five months old when voters in the UK last went to the polls in 2005, while social networking sites Facebook and Twitter had not then even been born.
The Conservatives were quick to point out that Gellard had previously been critical of Brown’s performance as prime minister and had said he should step down in favour of home secretary Alan Johnson.
“In short, Brown (although I had high hopes and don’t burden you with total responsibility) get your coat, time’s up. Our party is worth fighting for, and I know as long as there’s breath in my body I will fight for us,” she wrote.
Left with little money, Labour mentioned the word “debt” just four times in its document and only one of those references was to the UK’s near-trillion-pound national borrowing.
Instead, it talked of reform: of Whitehall bureaucracy and the Houses of Parliament; and new rules that would offer help to people to take out injunctions against poorly performing public bodies. However, the general theme is one that Labour must hope is not too complicated for an apathetic public to grasp: that intervention by the state where necessary is a good thing.
The manifesto, drafted by climate secretary Ed Miliband and fellow cabinet member Douglas Alexander, pledges to halve the budget deficit within four years, through spending curbs and already announced higher taxes.
Income tax rates will not go up – which is an important point, since Labour must appeal to the lower- and middle-income earners, though it previously broke a promise not to raise taxes for higher earners.
On VAT, Labour has been clear about what it would not do: it will not extend VAT to food, children’s clothes, books, newspapers and public transport fares, but it has not been clear about whether existing VAT charges would rise.
Labour, said Brown, had not increased the rate since it took power in 1997 and its figures are based on not increasing it – unlike the Conservatives, who would almost certainly have to do so.
In particular, Labour is appealing to the lowest-paid, promising to increase the minimum wage, currently set at £5.80 for those aged over 22, each year in line with earnings increases elsewhere.
The elderly, who could be a key category of voters this time, have been told that state pensions will rise once more in line with average earnings from 2012.
The manifesto is littered with populist tax measures, such as a “toddler tax credit” worth £200 a year for families earning less than £50,000 a year with children under three years old, and a doubling of paid paternity leave.
Equally, offering a dog-whistle to those upset by immigration, Labour also promises that all state workers dealing with the public will have to speak English fluently, while reformed criminals will be sent to reach out to disaffected youths on estates.
