“We can’t make the next election our cuts versus their cuts,” Gordon Brown raged at James Purnell, “Take it from me. I’ve won elections on this. It’s got to be Labour investment versus Tory cuts.”
That’s the big tactical argument that has plagued Labour since Purnell and Brown clashed at a fraught Cabinet meeting in 2009. The party is united in its conviction that Osbornomics doesn’t work – that the “long-term economic plan” goes on forever, that the British finances cannot be repaired through cuts alone, but divided on whether the best argument to make is between being trusted to reduce spending compassionately or on the case for greater “investment” (trans: spending) on public services.
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