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.
Categories: Campaign Issues, Economy, Labour party
Tags: ed balls, Ed Miliband, golden rule, Gordon Brown, ken livingstone, tube fares, tuition fees
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