The antidote to Gordon Brown's caution | David Wearing | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk .
David Wearing, writing about last weekend's Fabian conference has said:
The conference finished with a "Dragons' Den" for a major idea that could beat the right at the next election. The pitch receiving the most enthusiastic response from delegates was to adopt a radical "Green New Deal" for reordering the economy to deal with the challenge of climate change. This was clearly a reference to the plan of the same name drawn up by the New Economics Foundation, involving major structural changes to the financial system and serious investment in green industries to create new jobs.
Revealingly, the pitch was opposed by one "dragon", Brown's pollster Deborah Mattinson, who said that, while climate change was clearly "the biggest issue facing humanity", a "Green New Deal" was not an idea she could sell to voters.
This encapsulated the impression that I took away from the conference: a grassroots bursting with enthusiasm and ideas about how to respond to the new economic realities, versus a frustratingly conservative and cautious leadership. It's a picture that is unlikely to change before the general election, but the subsequent battle for Labour's future could make for an interesting contest.
I agree
We know what people want
The Labour leadership just needs to deliver
Amazing that they won't
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Especially as a survey of prospective Conservative candidates show that climate change issues are regarded as the lowest priority among 19 policies. This was highlighted by Left Foot Forward on Monday.
I agree with all of this. Cameron at least hs a bit of charisma, but neither he nor Brown appears to have any real vision on ambition.
The Today programme summed it up this morning. The failure of so many families is one of the biggest blights in Britain. The Tory policy: small tax breaks for married couples, something Ken Clarke got rid of 15 years ago because it was a waste of time. Labour’s? 600,000 booklets on being a better dad. No doubt because absent fathers read booklets like that.
So the debate becomes about which of 2 policies, both of which are wholly misconceived and lacking in ambition, is better. I do despair. Quite why the LibDems aren’t doing much better is what I can’t fathom.
Personally I don’t equate PR-polish with charisma. Diana Spencer had charisma – but David Cameron…. purlease.