Today is St George’s Day, the annual celebration of England’s patron saint. Festivities are typically more muted than the national days allotted to the other home nations, but perhaps election fever could change this; there’s been enough Little Englandism around in the campaign coverage so far.
The big picture
Today’s campaigning will return to the big beast of election issues: the economy. We saw some opening salvos in the first week of the campaign, before it was dragged down into a wrestling match over the level of danger supposedly posed by Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP. But the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies is set to publish its assessment of the economic policies of the four largest parties: Labour, the Conservatives, the Lib Dems and the SNP.
The IFS verdict is unlikely to settle decisively the most contested issue in the campaign, but such an independent verdict on each parties’ policies gives the media the opportunity to report a bit of light rather than heat. So expect the IFS documents to be pored over by partisans looking for that choice sentence or phrase which, taken out of context, can be blown up to provide decisive proof of their side’s unimpeachable rectitude, or their opponents’ proposed lurch toward fiscal catastrophe.
The tone for early jousts between Labour and the Conservatives has been set by chancellor George Osborne’s interview in the Daily Telegraph in which he renews attacks over the possibility of Labour being supported in government by the SNP. Osborne cites a Treasury estimate of the SNP’s spending plans, which said they would trigger an extra £6bn in debt interest payments.
“There’s a real cost for families,” Osborne writes, “equivalent to just over £350 per family.” Labour has called the chancellor’s comments “ludicrous” saying they were based on old figures. Ed Miliband will counter by saying the Tories are planning “the biggest cuts anywhere in the developed world”.
Here’s what else is around on Thursday morning:
- The Liberal Democrats will pledge a £150m support package for carers
- The former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown accuses the Conservatives of “whipping up English nationalism”. He has also written a letter to 350,000 voters.
- David Cameron endured a rough ride during a live Q&A for BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat, and was unable to say what the living wage was. The prime minister was asked by an audience member if he could live off the minimum wage – £6.50 an hour – as part of a discussion about low pay, but stumbled when asked to specify the living wage, saying: “It’s different in different parts of the country ... I don’t have the figures in my head.”
- Labour would attempt to replace GCSEs with a single baccalaureate over 10 years, the shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, told the Guardian. It would end the historic divide between academic and technical education for ages 14-19, he said.
- Nigel Farage said he would prefer immigrants from India and Australia to eastern Europeans, despite previously claiming his party would not want to discriminate against new arrivals by nationality. The Ukip leader indicated he would prefer immigration from countries he said had the most similar cultures to the UK as he was grilled about his approachduring the latest BBC party leader’s interview broadcast on Wednesday evening.
Today’s diary
Here are some of the main things we’ll be keeping an eye on on Thursday:
- 7.30am: Danny Alexander is campaigning for the Lib Dems in Aberdeen
- 8.10am George Osborne is the Today programme’s 8.10 interviewee before making economic speech in West Yorkshire
- 8.30am: Ukip’s Peter Whittle and Patrick O’Flynn hold presser in central London
- 9am: Nick Clegg is on LBC’s Call Clegg radio show
- 9.30am: Public sector borrowing figures released by the ONS
- 9.45am: The SNP’s John Swinney will be campaigning in an Edinburgh cafe
- 10am: The IFS publishes its analysis of the main parties’ public finance plans
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11am: Jim Murphy leads street rally for Scottish Labour in Edinburgh
- Morning: David Cameron addressing a campaign audience in Cornwall
Reading list
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David Aaronovitch in the Times (£) calls for some honesty in the NHS debate:
In the absence of honesty in the funding debate it is easy to fall back into pessimism. It’s a black hole, we can never afford to, let’s ditch the NHS and start again etc. But the NHS is not popular in Britain because the British are mad but because it is readily understood and represents a social solidarity and pooled risk that citizens actively endorse. Whichever system you chose you’d still have to pay more for it. But you really ought to say how.
- Continuing the theme of honesty (I’m spotting a pattern here), James Bloodworth on Left Foot Forward argues that politicians are tying themselves in knots over progressive taxation:
Because politicians won’t talk openly about tax, the case for progressive taxation is never made. The current general election campaign is a case in point. Because politicians refuse to publicly countenance any increase in income tax, the focus is always on which government departments the next government will slash and by how much.
Not only is this a huge concession to the right (income tax is bad whereas cutting is good) but it also risks leaving politicians open to accusations of breaking their promises if taxes do rise (which they will if the next government is to meet bourgeoning NHS and pension costs). Broken promises also lead to a further diminishment of public trust in politicians.
In recoiling from the dreaded T word, politicians are behaving as if it is 1992. Meanwhile, the public have moved on, and I suspect they might like a bit of honesty on tax, even if it hasn’t always worked out well in the past.
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Armando Iannucci in the Independent says the idea that one party can represent all we believe in doesn’t apply any more:
Is it any wonder that Nicola Sturgeon has caught the public’s attention since she is the only party leader openly discussing where she might find common agreement with another party? It may be a clever and strategic ploy on her part to wind up her opponents, but it plays well because it’s so radically contrasted with every other main party leader.
These more conventional figures are effectively saying, my party is the only one who’ll get you out of this mess and you’d be an idiot not to vote for it.
If today were a song …
… it would be Pink Floyd’s Money: “Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.”
Non-election news story of the day
‘Land of rape and honey’: Canada town reconsiders slogan after 55 years
While many Tisdale residents take pride in the town’s abundant rapeseed crop, officials wonder if the motto could be interpreted as ‘insensitive’
Yes, Tisdale, I think it’s time.
