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IN HIS make-or-break speech to Conference today, the Prime Minister will strike a note that should resonate with traditional working-class voters who feel New Labour has forgotten them. In language that might once have been characterised as “scrounger bashing”, Mr Brown will say that “people pulling their weight” believe that everyone who can work must work.
This phrase may ring hollow with those aware that Mr Brown's government has only belatedly begun to tackle welfare dependency, such as the large proportion of the 2.7 million on incapacity benefit who are capable of working. However, the tone should please Labour MPs whose supporters feel others are exploiting the system. So should Mr Brown's suggestion that some migrants to the UK are seeking to get out more than they put in.
All this should cut more ice with disillusioned voters than the previously announced initiatives on computers for deprived families and nursery places for two-year-olds. On the back of a small bounce in the polls as a result of the financial crisis, this looks like the right speech to reinforce the message that now is no time for a leadership challenge.
Mr Brown badly needs to get that line across. David Miliband's speech yesterday, while scrupulously loyal, was clearly inspired by a greater ambition than simply being a good foreign secretary. At the same time, yesterday's victories for the unions were a reminder that Mr Brown also faces a political challenge from the Left. Against this backdrop, Mr Brown must display a clear grasp of what those who have supported Labour but are now lured by David Cameron are concerned about. Simply implying that he is the safe pair of hands to lead Britain through the economic storm is not enough. The weak fiscal position he created during his years at the Treasury, exacerbated by the impact of the credit crunch on tax revenues, means he has little in the locker to offer in the way of expensive initiatives. But he is attempting to show, at the very least, that he knows what they want to hear.
Back Paulson
FOR THE sake of investors, savers and indeed all of us, Congress must end its disagreements over the $700 billion proposals from Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. Yesterday's fall on Wall Street, after last week's gyrations, was evidence of the continuing dangers faced by the American economy if banks are not given taxpayer support in the form devised by Mr Paulson, and these risks would have a direct effect on the credit crunch here in the UK.
Of course American voters will demand revenge on the banks in the form of tougher regulation, especially over remuneration and capital adequacy, in the months and years to come. But uncertainty on the scale financial markets have witnessed over the past week cannot continue. The collapse of a major bank like Lehman and the taxpayer rescue of housing giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae shook the confidence of America's creditors and raised new questions over the dollar's worth. The Paulson plan offers a solution. Congressmen must show that at a time of real need, Americans can get over their anger at Wall Street hubris and back the plan their economy needs. The settling of scores with greedy bankers can wait; first America has to get through the immediate crisis.
Zeitgeist
BURBERRY'S Christopher Bailey has a vision for next spring, when hard-edged glamour will look wrong in a world still reeling from this autumn's upheavals. In Milan he showed soulful fluttering chiffon and cottons in dewy colours. It's good to see this British designer turning inspiration from the enduring beauty of the English country garden into fashion that fits fast-changing moods.
