Chris Hallam is a partner at CMS Law Firm
After the dumpster fire that was the Tory conference in Manchester, last week he attended the last party conference of the season, when Labor held its annual 30-mile march along the East Lancs Road to Liverpool. Both parties seem to know how to get to the North West, although Labour’s prevarication around HS2 means a half-decent train service will probably never happen.
“Time and time again, governments … have promised to build lots of houses. guess what They never do”
At the business-sponsored opening drinks reception, Labor deputy leader and instigator-in-chief Angela Rayner kicked things off by ruling out any tax increases should they come to power.
I’m sure it was pure coincidence that the drinks reception was sponsored by Zilch, a “buy now, pay later” credit company. Given the state of the country’s finances, one suspects that even if we don’t buy now, we will all pay later, and for many years.
Zilch, on the other hand, is a good term to describe Labour’s visibility among the general population. Whether as a result of allowing the Tories to continually embarrass themselves, or simply because they are a bit – well – boring, it’s fair to say that Labor is suffering from an identity (or perhaps non-identity) crisis that would give Les Donald Rumsfeld’s “unknown unknowns” a run for his money.
Having accepted the corporate dollar to pay for their opening drinks, maybe they could learn a thing or two about how to increase brand awareness for companies in the beverage business. It’s unknown if the beer that was previously billed as “soothingly expensive” was flowing in his evening, but “definitely expensive” certainly sums up the plan for the next few years. After 13 years of Conservative government that has generally been heavy-handed, regularly left a bitter aftertaste and on more than a few occasions has been hard on the guts, the brewers’ catchphrase for Dublin’s most famous drink could be whatever Labor adopts. Maybe the best things come to those who wait.
Of course, therein lies another of Labour’s challenges: 13 years (and counting) in opposition. They have been out of office for so long, it’s hard to imagine them in government. That said, after a corporate-sponsored conference filled with grandiose announcements about building homes and a promise to ensure no immigrants end up in Rwanda, they may be looking more like the government with each passing day.
Empty promises?
Therefore, housing construction. Yes, I took the bait and, dear readers, I think we’ve been here before. Like almost every government of the last 30 years, Labor has made sweeping and over-ambitious commitments about how many homes it will build if voted into office.
Alas, we’ve heard all this before and I’ve written about it many times in the pages of this fair magazine. From Sunak, from Johnson, from May, Cameron, Brown and Blair. Not so much Liz Truss, but, you know, the weather wasn’t exactly on her side.
But time and time again, governments and whoever is in opposition have promised to build lots of houses. guess what They never do. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves proclaimed a Labor government would be “for the builders, not the blockers”. It would be great if that were the case, but what are the odds that we all end up stressed and aggravated and reaching for beta blockers.
It wasn’t the most exciting conference back then, and the closest we got to any stardust was when Sir Kier was ambushed by a bag of glitter during his speech. But maybe we need a little more boredom in our politics after a decade of soap opera. Of course, before that can happen, we have a general election full of more of this nonsense to endure.
I think I need a drink.
