They are doing it by allowing Lady Thatcher to speak of never joining the single currency. On both issues New Labour has the ground more or less covered Mr Blair and Mr Brown are not big spenders and they are offering a referendum on the euro.New Labour, with its complex and in some cases contradictory mix of policies higher public spending, tax cuts, deification of the private sector, pro-Europe and pro-George Bush demands a more subtle response than Mr Hague's much-amended Common Sense Revolution.To some extent that response is being articulated by Charles Kennedy, who is having a good campaign, his first as leader of his party. I have been struck by the number of Labour people, including one or two Blairite ministers, who have told me that privately they agree more with the Liberal Democrats' manifesto than their own. Some of them are keeping their fingers crossed that the Lib Dems perform better than they did four years ago, so that Mr Blair has some pressure on him from the left.
Not that Mr Kennedy will acknowledge that he is coming from the left He needs as many disaffected Tories as he can get Still, that does not change the reality. On every single policy, the Lib Dems are to the left of New Labour.The problem with the Liberal Democrats is the Liberal Democrats They are not weighty. They look and sound as if they have not been troubled by government for many a decade. Perhaps that is because they have not been troubled by government for many a decade.This makes the future of the Conservatives, the party that ruled over us for much of the last century, especially interesting. Behind the scenes there is already an intelligent debate raging about the party's future. I have spoken separately to two senior figures on the right of the party in recent days who are rethinking their uncritical support for wholesale privatisation. Both accept, for example, that the privatisation of Railtrack has been a failure.
Both question also whether private finance initiatives and public-private partnerships, much loved by New Labour, are good value for money.Now these are interesting questions, privately posed by many within New Labour's big tent. The Conservatives have got nowhere attacking New Labour from the right. On a range of issues, from constitutional reform to the provision of public services, a new Tory leader would make more progress by mounting an onslaught from slightly to the left of New Labour.steveric dircon.co.uk More from Steve Richards. They try so hard to make it interesting, the politicians.
