Fresh from his TV encounter with Jeremy Paxman last night, Ed Miliband today officially launches Labour’s election campaign at the Olympic Park. His declaration that this contest will be “neck and neck” is borne out by the polls. There is everything for Labour to play for. The good news for the party from last night’s TV interviews is that Mr Miliband, whose personal popularity ratings have been unimpressive to date, came across as confident and assertive. Given that expectations of his performance were not high, he far exceeded them. And if Mr Cameron was the winner in the contest between the two men according to most polls, Mr Miliband did better among swing voters, the group he must win over. This is heartening for Labour.
The party faces formidable challenges, however. It is telling that Mr Miliband has put the NHS at the heart of the campaign launch — Labour’s safest ground, where it enjoys a wide poll lead over the Tories. It is more difficult to make the case for its competence in managing the economy, especially with so many economic indicators showing strongly. Joblessness is down, inflation is zero and wages are finally rising faster than the cost of living. All this is hard to discount. Yet cutting the deficit in the way the Tories want, through spending cuts alone, will be much harder now than it was in 2010. Mr Miliband’s task is to point this out, without seeming to make Labour appear to be the party of welfare. It was notable that last night the heaviest punch Mr Paxman landed on the Prime Minister was about the growth in food banks and the number of zero-hours contracts. This is ground that Mr Miliband will exploit.
The Labour leader declares today that the contest is between him and the Tories. Yet he and voters are well aware that if the election is inconclusive and Labour has to form a minority government, it will probably have to do ad hoc deals with the SNP. It helps that the launch of the campaign today is in London, where the party’s standing is strong. But even here, Labour, like the others, can take nothing for granted in this most unpredictable of elections.
Calming flyers’ nerves
Air travel may be one of the safest modes of transport but after the revelation that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately brought down the Germanwings flight over the French Alps, some passengers may approach their Easter break flights with a little more trepidation. There is no absolute guarantee that human ingenuity will not beat any of the safety protocols established to keep passengers safe. Indeed, the irony of this apparent mass murder is that it was made possible by the safety measures introduced after 9/11 to ensure terrorists could not take control of a plane’s cockpit through the cabin door.
There are obvious precautions that airlines can take. Some carriers are introducing the requirement already standard in the US, that there should never be fewer than two crew members in the cockpit. That seems sensible. Lufthansa already has a culture of openness to allow staff members to express disquiet about a colleague’s condition, though it was not enough though to identify Mr Lubitz. We can never ensure absolute safety in the air but we can minimise the risks — which are in fact very low.
Extend the Bakerloo
A public consultation about extending the Bakerloo line has found that most people want the extension to run to Camberwell. South-east London badly needs this line. But whatever option is chosen, work will not start before 2025 at the earliest. Any chance of making it sooner, please?
