by Sadie Robinson
The general election campaign is officially underway–and many people are bored of it already.
The lack of choice on offer was laid bare in a non-debate between Tory prime minister David Cameron and Labour Party leader Ed Miliband last week.
The mainstream media said presenter Jeremy Paxman gave Cameron a “mauling”.
In fact Cameron managed to keep talking for as long as possible to cut the amount of questions he’d have to avoid answering.
Miliband briefly got on the front foot when he talked about standing up to the energy firms and banks, and helping people out of work.
Unfortunately his party can’t be relied on to stand up for ordinary people.
As shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves helpfully put it, “We are not the party of people on benefits.
“We don’t want to be seen, and we’re not, the party to represent those who are out of work.”
Labour has tailed the Tories’ attacks on working class people and welfare. Cameron likes to talk of supporting “hard working families” –but spoke of freezing in-work benefits last week.
Both party leaders somehow managed to talk about the thing that supposedly no-one can ever talk about–immigration.
People
And both vowed to make it harder for people to come to Britain–although some people seem to be more problematic than others.
Miliband said Labour could “get low skill migration down”–so presumably rich migrants would still be welcome.
Many people were understandably outraged at the Labour Party mug that pledged controls on immigration. What is really outrageous is that this is one of the party’s key election pledges.
Meanwhile the Tories continued Cameron’s dodging of questions this week by refusing to confirm details of planned benefit cuts.
Welfare minister Iain Duncan Smith said it may not be “relevant” to let people know how all of the Tories’ £12 billion of welfare cuts will be made.
“When we are ready we will talk about what we plan to do,” he said. “What I will say is that there are some things that we will do.”
Both parties got on with addressing the people they really care about this week–the rich.
The Tories predictably attacked Labour over the economy, claiming a Labour victory would mean “economic chaos”.
Meanwhile Miliband launched Labour’s business manifesto claiming that Cameron’s plan for a referendum on European Union membership would mean chaos for firms.
A debate between seven party leaders was set to take place on Thursday of this week.
Millions of people across Britain are sick of the Tories and austerity. We need a real alternative.
This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.