According to Ipswich Spy, who can always improve my view of them by mentioning me in a good light (I was told that Andrew Coates did something similar, although I’m fairly sure he doesn’t lose any sleep over my opinion) the cuts demonstration had about 350 people, not a bad turnout. But they’re not going to get anywhere with their current mantra “No ifs, no buts, no public sector cuts”.
“If I can get the service delivered for less money…”
“No ifs”
“But what if preserving union staff means cutting frontline delivery?”
“No buts”
“But people are hurting at the moment and will vote out anyone proposing a council tax hike and a rise in council rents just to save a couple of council middle managers from manning a call centre.”
“No public sector cuts.”
This chant works well when talking about “education cuts”. After all you can say that media studies courses are in the same class as primary schools, hospitals and foreign aid. Or you could say that teaching Tamara Art History is an investment in our future.
You can’t say this about the whole of the public sector. It’s moronic.
It is about the only strategy that Labour could follow in mid term that could set them back in council seats. In the 1980s and 1990s the only time and places where the Tories would win significantly on a local level would be when they proposed significantly lower local taxes than their rivals, even if that meant that the tax rate would be the same. I suppose Miliband could privately raise the money for a task force to take the Falklands in order to hand them back to Argentina, that would be less popular than the raising council tax to pay for street football co-ordinators, but only marginally.
The Conservatives on Suffolk County Council have set a trap for Labour locally, portray them as the party of irresponsibility and special privilege. Labour is walking into it as long as they are merely the political arm of the unions.
Would the Labour Party have fallen into this trap if Dame Bryony were leading either the Borough or the County group?
