Winning - and losing - by default

Tweet There's something quite sad about a Labour Party which has been in power for 12 years trying to fight the next election mainly on the basis of how horrid the Tories were. That's not to say that I substantially disagree with their analysis of the Tory years; I don't. But arguing that you should 'vote for us because we're not them', serves only to suggest a complete dearth of policy and vision.

The Government looks tired and weary; it looks directionless and lost - but rather than try and address those perceptions, they seem determined to reinforce them at every opportunity.

The tragedy is that they are in danger of allowing the Tories to win by precisely the same route. Not because they have articulated a different vision, not because they will make people's lives any better, but purely because they're not Labour. In short, the Labour Party seems likely to lose by basing its whole approach on not being the Conservatives, while the Conservatives seem likely to win on the basis that they're not Labour.

Whether Labour manage to hang on or whether the Conservatives do win as the polls currently suggest - either way, we will have a government which will have been elected largely because it isn't the other party. It's a pretty dismal position for politics to be in.