The Sun is setting for Labour (Greg Stone)

The Sun is setting for Labour

September 30, 2009 1:20 PM

Newcastle East Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesman Greg Stone has dismissed Gordon Brown's keynote speech to the Labour party conference as "a rag-bag of the unachieved, the uncosted, the unaffordable, and the unedifying".

In a speech to Lib Dem supporters he said "This was the last throw of the dice by Gordon Brown's failing Labour government as it staggers towards the General Election. It was a desperate attempt to rally the morale of his own party, rather than a meaningful programme for the kind of change of direction the country needs. The Prime Minister resembles a reeling and punch drunk boxer trying to live off the glory of past success but is headed for a final knockout blow."

The parts of the speech that were new were not good; the parts that were good were not new. More of the same failed top-down big government solutions are not what the country needs, and more to the point they are not what we can afford any longer. Labour are no longer trusted to deliver fair tax and sustainable spending.

I was particularly struck by the depressing realisation that Labour appear to have lifted their "state homes for teen mums" policy straight from the BNP's manifesto. If the past Tory government had ever proposed such a policy Labour would have howled in protest. Now we are faced with cheering from Labour activists - demonstrating that today's Labour party is now just a hollow right-wing shell deeply estranged from its core values.

The good news in the rest of the speech consisted of U-turns on previous Labour commitments opposed by the Lib Dems - such as 24 hr drinking and ID cards, combined with shameless borrowing of Lib Dem policies such as constitutional reform - albeit very vague and watered down - and investment in green jobs and apprenticeships. His pledges on a referendum on voting reform, and reform of the House of Lords, were the same undelivered promises from Labour's 1997 manifesto.

The promise to provide free personal care for the elderly - a policy championed for years by the Lib Dems and opposed by Labour - appears to be riddled with caveats about "those in the most need" and lacking in any detail about how it will be funded.

On anti social behaviour, Labour have failed to make serious inroads with ever tougher rhetoric and more and more government initiatives, and there is no evidence that their latest top-down control-freak proposals will be any different.

It remains far from clear how Gordon is going to deliver or afford many of these announcements, given the massive hole he has created in the national finances, and I fear there could be more nasty surprises like the cutting of childcare tax credits hidden in the small print.

While Brown was right to question the priorities of the Conservatives, deep down he knows that the game is up and Labour's record of failure has been seen for what it is by their traditional supporters. Even the Sun is setting for Labour.

The election is only months away and under Gordon Brown, Labour is finished. Only the Liberal Democrats can provide real change for the future.