Alan Johnson should save it for Brown

This must be the opposite of “rapid reaction”. Some two weeks late, Labour is responding to David Cameron’s speech in Glasgow. It is Alan Johnson who is trying to divine some clear, red water:

“Before we evoke the Victorian notion of the deserving and undeserving poor we should take a moment to consider how complex these issues really are.

Just as the government has a moral duty to tackle poverty and exclusion, so it also has a duty to address obesity. But this is not a licence to hector and lecture people on how they should spend their lives.”

Consider this for a moment. A Labour government whose leader has just finished telling the nation to eat up its leftovers now decides that it shouldn’t boss people around. If Mr Johnson really doesn’t like people who hector and lecture, he should save his remarks for the next Cabinet meeting.