Global events may soon relegate Labour conference to the News in Brief sections of newspapers, especially as it appears that G20 finance
ministers are preparing for Greece to default and
for contagion to spread to other parts of the Eurozone. So, the Labour leader has wasted no time as Labour conference opens.
In interviews with the Observer and the Sunday Mirror, he revives his tactic of presenting himself as an insurgent, the man to “rip up the rulebook”. He makes a pledge or two: the headline grabbing idea is a cap tuition fees at £6,000 per year, paid for by reversing a planned corporation tax cut on the hated banks. This blatant pitch for disaffected votes, coming from a leader who opposed fee increases outright last year, doesn’t suggest that the leadership has moved beyond eye-catching gimmicks to talk credibly about economic policy.

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