From energy bills and payday loans to the Living Wage, Syria and phone hacking, the Prime Minister is exposed as an opportunist copycat - By Paul Routledge
To the long list of Tory crimes must now be added grand larceny – of Labour’s policies.
Hugh Turn (say it out loud), who also trades under the name of David Cameron, shamelessly reversed his stand on fuel charges and payday loans.
He sneered at Ed Miliband’s gas and electricity price freeze, and then brought in a pale imitation that still leaves bills rising.
He rejected limits on sky-high interest rates charged by payday loan merchants, but now he favours curbs.
No wonder Ed Miliband kept his policies under wraps for so long in the face of Tory taunts that he hasn’t got any.
As soon as he goes public with a bright idea, Coalition crooks burgle it. Ed led on Syria, and phone hacking, and Cameron followed.
Labour backs the Living Wage, and Boris Johnson, friend of the super-rich, followed in London.
When the Tories start filching the Opposition’s policies, you know they’re rattled. Their Grand Autocratic Theft is a good thing, because it shows Ed Miliband is getting it right. And not-so-good because it raids his store of policies in the run-up to polling day.
Cameron’s latest theft of Labour’s clothes is barefaced cheek. Unfortunately, the clothes don’t fit, and he looks stupid in them.
Hugh Turn is revealed as the circus clown, with his pockets full of pilfered policies.
Labour has hit on a rich vein of voter support by hoisting the cost of living to the top of the political agenda. It shows they care.
The Tories claim to be ahead on the issue of the economy, but that doesn’t cut quite so much ice with people these days.
For many, “the economy” is a remote concept, something that politicians do far away in Westminster when they’ve done fiddling their expenses.
But the cost of living is in every home. It affects every family and every pensioner.
Bill Clinton’s winning slogan “It’s the economy, stupid” needs updating. It should read “It’s the cost of living, wise guy.”
Another test of Tory nerves is the level of vituperation. Unable to counter Ed’s attack on incompetent Coalition handling of the cost of living crisis, Cameron resorts to personal abuse.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, his face gets redder, his arrogance gets louder, his contempt more obvious and his insults nastier. We see the Bullingdon Boy bully behind the baby face.
It’s not a pretty sight. I don’t think it wins him any votes from uncommitted viewers of this weekly theatre of the absurd. The way he behaves tells us more about him than a thousand U-turns.
So, I don’t mind him paying Labour the back-handed compliment of stealing Ed’s policies. If they can be implemented before Labour gets back into power, that’s a plus.
We can test-drive a Miliband government.
Mirrror
