alex massie | House of Comments

Mar

2010

20: It’s The Economy, Stupid.

This week we’re joined by Alex Massie of The Spectator, and by Alex Smith, editor of LabourList and Islington council candidate.

We chatted about:

The last week has been dominated by the economy, with the budget speech last Wednesday and Channel 4′s ‘Ask The Chancellors’ debate the night before our recording. How did the performances of Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable stack up in the Channel 4 debate, and will it have any overall effect on the election outcome?
Tony Blair has recently returned to the UK political scene, giving a speech in support of Gordon Brown. Is his return a good thing for the Labour Party, or does it smack of desperation?
While Labour have been closing on the Conservatives in polls recently, it still seems fairly unclear what they would actually do with another term in Parliament. Could we see, as Alex Smith suggests, a surprisingly radical manifesto from Labour?
At the same time, the Tories have not successfully gained control of the ‘media agenda’ from Labour. Are the suffering from a lack of campaign experience compared to Labour?
Both Alexes were in the USA during the run up to last year’s presidential election, and Alex Smith worked for the Obama Campaign from 2007. We took the opportunity to ask them about that campaign and whether British political parties can take anything from that campaign.