Labour`s "rich pickings" from the budget

With one brief sentence, your editorial summed up George Osborne and his budget perfectly, and sent the clearest of messages to the Labour party, pointing it in the direction needed to be taken over the next five years (Observer view of the Budget,12/07/15). Whether it will be understood by all of the candidates for the party`s leadership is debatable, and certainly Tristram Hunt`s desire for "a new progressive patriotism" seems to suggest that he doesn`t grasp the real significance of Osborne`s budget (The speed and rapidity with which Labour is starting to be seen as irrelevant and out of the debate is terrifying,12/07/15).  The statement,"The data doesn`t lie", is, perhaps, too implicit for many on the Labour front-bench to grasp its meaning and significance, but Will Hutton certainly does, seeing the "rich pickings" available for Labour as long as they understand "the possibilities", and "challenge Osborne`s narrative" (Welcome to Osbornia, an Orwellian land of false hope and dashed dreams,12/07/15).

      Labour lost the election on the basis of a myth which the Tory propaganda machine developed and perpetuated, that overspending by the Labour government caused the economic crash. That same machine is now attempting to create the belief that, because the Conservatives are supposedly the party of the working people, Labour is no longer necessary.

On the contrary, their opposition to this most duplicitous of governments is needed more than ever, to stress the shortcomings of the Budget, using accurate figures to emphasise the one economy "Osborne is the master of", that of  with the truth, and the fact that the so-called "northern powerhouse" was an election pledge never expected to see the light of day in a coalition government Far from being "irrelevant" as the shadow education secretary supposes, the Labour party can return to former levels of support by exposing the Tory government`s duplicity, but it must start now; the budget was only an "emergency" one because there needed to be a summer break immediately after it to let the dust settle. Labour must not allow that to happen; the country will be in a much worse state after five years of Tory rule turn the "one nation dream" into a "nightmare". Labour can win the 2020 election, provided  its campaign starts now!