You only had to watch Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, launching the new six-pledge card thing in Essex on Thursday. She bounced onto the stage with that expression politicians have the morning after a huge victory. Her face was one big soporific smile and she’s clearly been away attending a John Prescott word-mangling masterclass. “We aren’t,” she said, although she actually said “we are”, “promising the world,” which she quickly corrected to “the earth”, before adding: “But we are promising that what we are confident on we can deliver on.” Which I had to listen back to about six times to check I had it word for word.
Rachel Reeves then promised to “never play fast and loose with the public finances”. Let’s see how her VAT on private schools policy works out – indications are that already parents are eyeing up state-school alternatives for this September. Ed Miliband is going to “take back control of our destiny”, Yvette Cooper is “giving young people their future back”, while Sir Keir Starmer walked into that room filled with people in suits, tie-less in white shirt sleeves so you could notice him.
It all seems a bit vague. Maybe that’s deliberate?
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