North or south of the Border, Labour still has a tough climb

Published on Monday 12 April 2010 22:58

JUST a few weeks ago, when the election campaign was still unofficial, Labour launched a poster campaign detailing the two faces of David Cameron on health.

Yesterday, the Labour manifesto launch revealed the party's two faces to the electorates north and south of the Border. Just like the two-faced Roman god Janus, it looked to the old and the new.

In a hospital in the crucial marginal of Birmingham Edgbaston – built through a Blairite private finance initiative programme – Prime Minister Gordon Brown had a very modern welcome on to the stage from a young Twitter user.

Mr Brown proclaimed to the cheering crowd that this was a New Labour manifesto and that he was proud of the party's achievements under Tony Blair. And he told the audience he wanted more people to be middle-class, just like him – ordinary middle-class that is.

This was, as Lord of Spindoctors Peter Mandelson noted afterwards, "Blair plus". After trying to rub out the word "New" upon replacing Mr Blair two years ago, Mr Brown has brought New Labour back with a vengeance.

Some 232 miles away in Motherwell, Labour launched its tartan manifesto on the site of the old Ravenscraig steel works.

The phrases "middle-class" and "New Labour", like the names of Tony Blair and even Gordon Brown, were not heard here as local MP Frank Roy, a former steelworker, Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy and Holyrood leader Iain Gray launched the manifesto.

The future here was represented in the thoroughly working-class aspirations of apprentices at Motherwell College, which now sits on part of the site.

Even the "Joe and Jane" cartoon screened before the launches had differences – and not just in the accents. In England, Joe lives round the corner; in Scotland, he used to work at Ravenscraig. In England, it seems granny wants to go home, while in Scotland she wants to spend her pension at the bingo.

While it's more bobbies on the beat for the English, it's fewer knives for the Scots. And while a young English child dreams of great schools, his Scottish cousin is looking forward to one of those apprenticeships.

But in both countries, two of children are called Jack and Jill – appropriate since Labour needs to climb a hill in the polls to overtake the Tories.