Let the battle commence: Finally, the General Election campaign is on
THE phoney war is over.
The battle for Number 10 has finally begun. Last Wednesday, in what may well have been his sharpest, most effective performance at the despatch box, David Cameron fired the starting gun for what promises to be one of the most hotly contested elections in living memory.
This was the last Prime Minister’s Questions of the Parliament. For either Cameron or Ed Miliband this was possibly their last hurrah at the despatch box and they both hoped to leave the chamber on a high, each determined to inflict a mortal wound on his rival. The crowds of MPs who gathered for the last set-piece of the session were not disappointed.
The previous day, Chancellor George Osborne had refused five times to give a “cast-iron guarantee” that the Conservatives would not raise VAT in the next Parliament, saying only that there was no need to do so. He was tackled on his plans after Labour’s Ed Balls promised to rule out a rise in VAT in its manifesto.
So it was little surprise to anyone, clearly including the Prime Minister, that the Labour leader would use the Chancellor’s perceived omission as the party’s main line of attack as the pair met for their last weekly jousting session of this Parliament.
So confident was he that he would walk away the victor the Prime Minister even invited his wife Samantha and their two older children Nancy, 11, and Elwen, nine, to witness the spectacle from the members’ gallery.
Cocksure Miliband approached the microphone intent on heaping maximum embarrassment on his opponent. After a quip about the Camerons’ “retirement plans” following Monday’s TV interview when he ruled out serving a third term, Miliband challenged him to give a straight answer.
“Will he now rule out a rise in VAT?” asked Miliband. “Yes,” came the reply from the Prime Minister, who quickly turned the tables, challenging Miliband to rule out a Labour hike in national insurance contributions. The startled Labour leader had been wrong-footed.
Cross-examination exposes any weaknesses in would-be leaders
Later that day Balls ruled out a rise in national insurance as Labour aides were left pulp- ing thousands of leaflets accus-ing the Tories of planning to increase VAT.
It was an exchange that not only set the policy agenda for the next six weeks, but the tone of the entire campaign, which will be focused on which party has most credibility and which leader has the strength of character to make the tough decisions needed to run the country.
It was to these two themes that Jeremy Paxman returned time and again as he grilled the party leaders on Thursday night in their first TV election battle.
Cameron was questioned over his broken promises to the electorate, forced like a naughty schoolboy to confess where he had got things wrong. Likewise Miliband was forced to admit the previous Labour administration had made mistakes, among them failing to regulate the banks.
YET WHEN things got personal it was Miliband who took the biggest battering. While Cameron was castigated for his friendship with SDHpdisgraced former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, Paxman launched a character assassination against the Labour leader, accusing him of being seen as a “North London geek”.
In response Miliband said the personal criticisms were water off a duck’s back. “Who cares?” he harrumphed.
But the point is people do care. The purpose of this kind of cross-examination is to expose weaknesses in both character and policy. These are the very questions that people will want answered on the doorstep over the next six weeks before they deliver their verdict on May 7.
It is not just going to be about who they trust to run the economy, safeguard their jobs and put more money in their pocket but also who has the mettle to stand up to bullies such as Vladimir Putin and have a presence on the world stage.
While Miliband may have won over some with his energetic and at times comical duel with Paxman, it was cool Cameron who looked like a statesman.
If the election comes down to a straight question of who voters trust to run the economy and who looks most like a leader it should be a forgone conclusion... despite polls remaining stubbornly stuck in hung Parliament territory.
Yet, a week is a long time in politics, so six is practically a lifetime and, as previous campaigns have shown, anything can happen. The one thing that is certain is that the battle for Britain is on.
