Not the economy, stupid
- 18 Jun 08, 10:46 AM
Have you noticed, it's not the economy, stupid? Despite the return of inflation, despite the spectre of a price wages' spiral, despite the prospect of interest rate rises, the Tories are not, they tell us, focusing on the economy.
Instead David Cameron repeats the mantra again and again, that the heart of his strategy is to do for society what Margaret Thatcher did for the economy. Thus he highlights proposals on families, on welfare, and on schools and this week makes a major speech about the environment, hinting that he'd stop Heathrow's expansion at a potential cost - yes you've guessed it - to the economy.
So why is this? In part, because Cameron genuinely believes that improving society is the one thing he wants to do, and could do, if he became prime minister. In part, because the bad economic news works to the Tories' advantage without them having to do very much. In part, because there is a link. The Tories claim that if they cut the cost of social failure - a promise first made, you may recall, by Tony Blair - that they will be able to improve the efficiency of the economy and deliver those hallowed tax cuts.
There is though, I suspect, another reason. Read Danny Finkelstein's article in today's Times and you'll get a hint of it. The Tories fear being seen as too different to Labour.
Research shows that that people judge what is wise and what is risky by how different it is to what they've got now. Promise to cut taxes when no-one is and people think it's risky. Promise to raise them when no-one is and they assume that's risky. Thus it's better to show that you would be not that different, just better than the current incumbents.
The question is, how much thinking is going on behind the scenes, not about what George Osborne the shadow chancellor says, but what he'd actually do as chancellor? For all our sakes, I hope it's a lot.
