Some headlines from the last few days, which fall into two distinct categories.
In category one: PM unveils business council as Starmer woos executives. Reeves vows Labour would champion City. Labour makes surprise corporation tax pledge in new City charm offensive.
And in category two: Economic stagnation pushes insolvencies to 30-year high. IMF warns Hunt against tax cuts. UK infrastructure costs spiral. Big four audit firms admit to hundreds of rule violations.
So what we’ve got is a Labour party so desperate to get over the election finishing line that it is willing to say almost anything not to upset bankers and business people.
Just as those bankers and business people are going, in the eyes of ordinary folk – to make life a lot harder.
Gordon Brown and Tony Blair did the same before their 1997 election win. Which left them little room to distance themselves from the banks when they later blew up the economy.
By numerous accounts, when Royal Bank of Scotland CEO, then “Sir” Fred Goodwin, wanted a regulation dropped, he called Brown directly. And got what he wanted.
It is understandable that Labour should seek to reassure the City and business that it is on their side.
But they are trying way too hard in ways that leave them little wiggle room later.
The City gets treated too seriously by politicians, as if it were the font of all knowledge despite clear evidence otherwise.
It’s a chunky sounding 10% of the UK economy. The same as manufacturing. Which doesn’t get anything like the same amount of love – indeed, it tends to get treated as if it has no future.
The City acts like what is good for it is good for the rest of us, which isn’t always true.
It is just another interest group which is very skilled at lobbying.
From a PR point of view, Labour thinks it has to have the financiers on side. For most of the public, the financiers are part of the problem.
Please, please like us is a rather unbecoming, rather desperate looking stance.
And I’m not sure it is either a PR or an electoral winner.
