Back to the Future with Labour’s conference pledges

The three wise men (or stooges, depending on your perspective) of Labour’s comeback have hailed their new policies over the past few days - seemingly without any sense of irony that they are not exactly on solid ground as far as credibility is concerned.

Ed Miliband: “We will cut tuition fees to £6,000.”

– Labour Manifesto, 1997: “We will not introduce tuition fees.”

– Tuition fees introduced in 1998.

– Labour Manifesto 2001: “We will not introduce top-up fees.”

– Top-up fees introduced in 2004, trebling the level of fees.

Ken Livingstone:”I will cut fares”

– Between 2005 and 2007, the single Oyster bus fare under Livingstone rose by 42 per cent (from 70p to £1)

–In 2007, there was a 25 per cent increase in the off-peak Oyster bus fare, greater than any rise Boris has imposed on it.

Ed Balls:”we will set out for our manifesto tough fiscal rules that the next Labour government will have to stick to”

– In 2006, Treasury figures showed that Chancellor Brown would have broken his ‘Golden Rule’ by £2.5bn. So he moved the dates of the economic cycle.

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