Why Labour will not be trusted on the economy

Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have been doing their best in recent times to try and convince that they can be trusted on the economy. They have tried to push the message that they will be tough and things are likely to be very tight for years to come and that if they are in government they will have to cut too.

Andrew Rawnsley wrote last week about how difficult it will be for them to do this not least in convincing their own side of the necessity.

But there is another more fundamental aspect of this that is problematic for Labour, perhaps terminally so. It is encapsulated by the following links:

"Tory led government has ideological agenda on cuts" - Angela Eagle (Labour Party Website)

Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson says coalition cuts are "ideological" (Guardian October 2010)

"Be in no doubt - these cuts are ideological" (Seb Dance - Labour Euro candidate LabourList October 2010)

These were just gleaned from two minutes' googling using the keywords "cuts" "ideological" and "Labour". But I remember there being way more than these three instances. Indeed almost every cut the government has ever announced has been opposed as "cruel", "ideological" or "unnecessary" by some Labour party spokesperson or other.

So the idea that they can suddenly in the last few months of the parliament get credibility on the economy by claiming they will be "tough" is laughable, unless they wish to renounce almost everything any spokesperson has ever said about the current government's cuts.

But maybe all of these calls were by lower level people like junior shadow ministers or those such as Johnson who have now left front bench politics....

"Ed Miliband says planned cuts are choice, not necessity" (BBC Website December 2010)

Uh oh spaghettios.