Shadow work and pensions secretary Douglas Alexander gave a speech to Demos today in which he acknowledged Labour's mistakes in communicating their response to the recession and criticised Conservative attempts to portray the opposition as hoping for a double dip recession. He explained that Labour had made the right decisions during the economic crisis by preventing a recession from becoming a depression.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Douglas Alexander gave a speech to Demos today in which he acknowledged Labour’s mistakes in communicating their response to the recession and criticised Conservative attempts to portray the opposition as hoping for a double dip recession. He explained that Labour had made the right decisions during the economic crisis by preventing a recession from becoming a depression.
In a somewhat reflective speech he admitted that
“… we got the recession response right … but the politics wrong.”
Whilst acknowledging that Labour’s communication with the public has been an issue for the party, Alexander elaborated on his comments:
“The trust voters felt in Labour was diminished in the last Parliament and we must work to rebuild that trust in this Parliament.”
Despite previous issues with delivering their message to the electorate, he warned that the Conservative’s are trying to create a false image of the Labour party as a party purely made up of opposition, unwilling to work in the national interest:
“The Conservatives now want to create a false and damaging image of a Labour Party that sits in Westminster rubbing its hands at every bit of bad news and willing a double dip recession.”
As well as discussing the Conservative party’s attack strategy against a resurgent Labour, Alexander pointed out the flaws in the extremely optimistic figures predicted by the coalition government regarding an increase in the number of jobs provided by the private sector:
“Writing in the Observer last month, Will Hutton set out the scale of that challenge ‘the private sector [outside business and financial services] that generated a mere 300,000 jobs between 1993 and 1999 is now expected to generate more than 2 million between now and 2015’.”
Certainly Labour will have to work with the government on some issues, however Douglas Alexander is surely right in his argument that when it comes to private sector job growth, the Coalition’s number just don’t add up.
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