Labour's over-fussing problem

Opposition is underrated. You can spend your whole time pointing at Expensive Things and complaining that the Government Should Do Something about their cost, and grumbling about other things you don’t like either, like a mother-in-law wearing a party rosette. What’s not to like about being a professional complainer?

The problem is that at some point you have to stop just pointing at things and complaining about them, and instead actually give a sense of what you would do instead. And if you’ve been too fussy to begin with, you end up disappointing people who thought you really were going to do something about everything you complained about to begin with. The Tories know this, and so are having a little bit of fun today with Liam Byrne’s welfare speech. They have produced an infographic reminding voters of the party’s record on benefits reform so far. But another example of Labour’s over-fussing problem is the noise it has made about zero-hours contracts.