Labour`s cowardice inexcusable

I`m not holding my breath, but a penny might possibly drop, and Labour leaders might actually grasp the fact that when some passion and anger were shown by them, over the greed of the energy companies, their ratings in the polls rose. The opposite is now the case, because, as Polly Toynbee rightly says,they appear to have lost their "outrage". Instead of passionate speeches and articles denouncing the despicable state of affairs in housing and renting, supporting the much maligned NHS, promising to redress the unfairness in our taxation system, attacking Gove`s attempts to destroy comprehensive education and Cameron`s UKIP-like policies on immigration, and defending the weakest and poorest in our society, what do we get? An article in the Telegraph which "makes a pitch for soft Tory voters", and carefully avoids placing too much blame on Cameron, and an interview in the New Statesman which opens the door for a coalition with the duplicitous Clegg, sixteen months before the election! Such cowardice is inexcusable, and will see the inevitable fall in the polls.

 The assumption appears to be that nothing must be written or said which might offend the "suppering classes" in the marginal seats, as though none of them dislikes the fraudulent bahaviour of the financial institutions, tax reductions for the super rich, inflated house prices and rents which prevent their children ever affording decent housing, not to mention the dismantling of the NHS. Principles, as we have seen all too often in recent years, clearly are not deemed important when there are votes to be won, but just because Cameron breaks promises galore, and Clegg suddenly, after four years in office, thinks fairness important, does not mean Labour should be similarly lacking in decency.Sadly, however, Miliband`s promise of a party different from the others seems as distant as ever.