We can expect to see a lot of Ken Clarke over the next few days; the Tories know that he is still on of their most convincing voices on the economy. His interview in The Times today is helpful to the Tory cause. But it is worth noting that he breaks with the leadership in endorsing the idea of a stimulus package albeit one of a very different stripe from the one Brown and Darling are said to be planning, Clarke favours a temporary reduction in VAT to 15 percent.
One line from the interview, though, could be the basis of an effective Tory attack:
“We keep having ‘this is going to save the world’ moments and they’re all useless.”
After the PBR, the Tories have a chance to change the political dynamics, to focus the debate on whether Labour’s expensive measures have actually worked or just got the country deeper into debt. Matthew Parris puts this point with his typical eloquence in his column:
“But if summer comes and still the recession bites, Mr Brown’s sorcerer’s reputation may dim. With the stimulus spent and still not stimulating; the seed corn eaten, not sprouting; the grind of the pistons as the engine refuses to spark, a Prime Minister hunched over the ignition, still bragging that he knows how to start this thing, could annoy mightily.
Remember, Mr Brown’s claims to cosmic leadership rest on what he says his measures will achieve, not on what they have achieved. The boasts will finally grate, and a Conservative message that if he can’t whistle up a recovery, at least he should stop running up bills, should feel timely.”
Once the PBR has gone, Labour will have little left in the locker. Brown will have to hope that events vindicate him.
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