Stressing Tories` incompetence is insufficient!

Andy Beckett rightly states that calling for competence in government "is not a rival programme for office", but Starmer cannot afford to wait "until parliament returns next month" to make Labour`s case (Nobody denies Johnson`s government is incompetent. But do enough voters care? 22/08/20). Showing the "unsuitability of many Tory ideas, barely changed since the Thatcher era" would be a good start, and where better than the economy? The £2tn debt story will inevitably be developed by many Tories into an excuse for austerity and higher taxes, so Starmer should be demanding the Bank of England`s quantitative easing be on the agenda, along with the flawed evidence behind the Laffer curve, and the positive effects on economic growth of having a debt-to-GDP ratio of over 90% (Coronavirus drives national debt to £2tn for first time, 22/08/20). Emphasising the difference between government and household debt is essential. Labour strategists certainly have a point when stressing that "establishing competence comes first", but that is where Beckett`s "displacement activity" comes in (Starmer playing long game in undermining Tories, 22/08/20). Pointing out the government`s ineptness, for example, over the "exams fiasco" only gains votes if Labour`s alternative looks better, but there wasn`t one, not even the practicable system of sending predicted grades along with samples of work to exam board markers, all of whom will have been chosen long before the lockdown! Of course, Starmer and his colleagues should be shouting from the rooftops about the absentee prime minister, his government`s degenerate cronyism, and the damage being done to every facet of ordinary people`s lives. Outlining details of manifesto policies can come later, but the public have to be made aware of what Starmer`s Labour stands for, and until that happens, Johnson`s misgovernment continues unabated!