Jon Cruddas and Chuka Umunna go local on the Tories

Now is not a good time–politically–to be an incumbent. The economic realities mean that tough choices have to be made: services cut, taxes raised or both. So it is a clever move by Jon Cruddas and Chuka Umunna to set up a website, Tory stories, scrutinising the work of Tory councils. It also plays to the message that many in the Labour party, but notably not Gordon Brown and Ed Balls, want to push: Cameron and a few top Tories might have changed the rest of the party hasn’t.  The  Tories are keen to show that they will not balance the budget on the backs of the low paid, note how the million lowest paid public sector workers are exempt from their proposed public sector pay freeze. But if Cruddas and Umunna can consistently turn the spotlight on cases where Tory councils appear to be doing that they could cause Cameron some problems.