Labour tries to prise Osborne and IDS apart

Labour’s spin is less dexterous now that Alistair Campbell and Peter Mandelson have passed into night; but it can still artfully disguise politics as principle. Douglas Alexander is at in the Guardian, fanning the dull embers of George Osborne and IDS’ summer spat. He renews the offer of cross-party dialogue that he made on Andrew Marr last Sunday, before retreating, saying:

‘But beneath the talk of “we’re all in this together” (a phrase specifically recommended for repeated use by Republican pollster Frank Luntz), what the chancellor announced on welfare was largely a laundry list of cuts that penalise the vulnerable and the working poor. And in doing so he undermined some of the more admirable aims of Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, like simplifying the benefits system.’

Yvette Cooper adhered to the same creed when she was the shadow welfare secretary: IDS is a cipher whose thoughtful innocence has been usurped by George Osborne – who is less the son of Thatcher, more a Fagin-like miser; and no doubt David Cameron is Bill Sykes to Nick Clegg’s Nancy.