Labour Must Rethink Austerity

I am a fan of the World at One news programme on BBC Radio 4, and listen to it with interest on holidays and on Saturdays. I’m one of those people who yells at the radio in disagreement, or applauds the speaker as the situation demands (and yes, I know the radio announcer can’t actually hear me!). And the fact is, I usually hear the name ‘Ed Balls’ and prepare to murmur agreement with the shrewd ideas of the Shadow Chancellor.

Unfortunately, I didn’t anticipate the panic that Labour’s slip in the polls has caused in the distant leadership of the my party. Now that a poll lead of 11 points has fallen to 7 points, in what was a temporary fluctuation, the two Eds are issuing a flurry of policy announcements, designed to prove One Nation Labour’s ‘responsibility’ on matters such as the budget deficit and the welfare state…