Den brittiska valkampen

Rafael Behr var  tidigare politisk kommentator på New Statesman. Numera skriver han i The Guardian. Han är värd att följa för den som är intresserad av brittisk politik. Idag skriver han om den ojämna kampen mellan de båda stora partierna:

Labour has the ground troops; the Conservatives have the media and friendly tycoons. It’s hardly a fair fight

The habit of using military metaphor to describe peacetime politics is ridiculous and irresistible. British elections are infected with the vocabulary of combat: “war room” for headquarters, “battle bus” for coaches, “boots on the ground” for activists.

Journalists, never shy of overstatement, are complicit, and politicians need no encouragement. Yesterday David Cameron declared “all-out war” on mediocrity in schools. (With what? Banality-seeking missiles?) This is the same prime minister who affected outrage because Ed Miliband was alleged to have said he would “weaponise” the NHS ahead of the election. Such hysterical gesturing is all part of the “air war” – the competition to control the terms on which the election is fought; to depict your enemies as a threat to civilisation and yourself as its salvation.

Tory firepower on that front is unchallenged. They have more money, more press support and a simpler message than Labour. Twice in the past week, Conservative-leaning newspapers have given front-page prominence to business barons, one of them a Tory peer, foretelling apocalypse if Miliband is elected. Those are just opening shots.

Labour’s hopes of resistance are pinned on the “ground war”. The opposition’s numerical advantage in activists is said by campaign strategists roughly to mirror the three-to-one advantage the Tories have in cash. Miliband has told his party it must conduct 4 million doorstep conversations by polling day. This is making a virtue of necessity since Labour can’t afford glossy brochures and billboards on every corner. The virtue is humility, a quality not much associated with Westminster politics and a prerequisite for regaining trust. The theory is that if you show people you are capable of listening, they might listen back.

Han sammanfattar:

The question is already posed: would Labour ruin the recovery? And setting the question is half the battle won because forcing an opponent to answer means he has yielded to hostile terms.

That is what air supremacy does and why Tory confidence is growing. Four million conversations on the ground can change a lot of minds, but Labour’s infantry will still struggle to be heard over the roar of the anti-Miliband jets.

Behr

Det har sedan Ed Miliband slog ut sin bror David – den tidigare utrikesministern – i kampen om partiordförandeposten funnits många inom Labourpartiet som menat att Ed är för mycket vänster för att kunna vinna ett parlamentsval.

Behr har säkert helt rätt i att den avgörande frågan för väljarna är just om den ekonomiska återhämtningen skulle avbrytas med Ed på 10 Downing Street.

Partiets ekonomiska talesman Ed Balls har en tuff uppgift att övertyga på den punkten. Han gjorde härom dagen ett inte helt lyckat TV-framträdande där han fick frågan om det fanns någon företagsledare som höll på Labour. Balls kom då bara på att den företagsledare han tänkte på hette ”Bill”. Efternamnet hade han glömt….

På twitter återkom sedan Balls i just frågan om Bill:

 ”I know, I know. Bill Thomas, our Small Business Taskforce Chair, will never forgive me. It’s an age thing!”