Gair Rhydd

As the credit crunch bites it isn’t just house prices that are on a downward slope under Labour, as Gordon Brown’s popularity plummets. The first YouGov poll since Labour’s defeat in the Crewe & Nantwich by-election showed Labour lagging behind the Conservatives with 23% to their 47%.

This is hardly surprising considering the wave of failures we have seen from Labour since Gordon Brown took over as Prime Minister. A rebellious fervour is beginning to circulate around Westminster once again, a year since Tony Blair was ousted from the party.

When Blair was suffering his worst popularity ratings the country looked to Brown as a ray of hope – a no-nonsense figure to cut through the sleaze. One year on and our perceptions have been reversed: Blair seems to have been reconfigured in the press as a strong leader and political icon for our age.

Never did we imagine things could get worse. We all thought that if anyone could deal with an impending economic crisis, Brown could.

Yet, in last month’s YouGov poll 22% believe Labour could run Britain’s economy well as opposed to 39% who believe the Conservatives best matched for the job.

It is a common mistake to blame one man for the economic troubles and the social policy U-turns, but the reality is that these problems have been building up for years and now the Labour Party has become detached from the very people it purports to tradtionally represent: low earners and the social sector.

The embarrassing issue of MPs’ own salary increases has been allowed to surface at a time when a lack of other public servive pay rises are the order of the day.

The police calls for pay rises were shafted by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and thousands are reeling from losing their jobs and having their businesses suffer devastation after the closure of 2,500 of the ironically-branded ‘People’s Post Offices’.

Moreover, Labour’s refusal to act over non-doms has only led to more questions about where the party’s values lie. It seems to be the lower income and social sector workers who are suffering. Who honestly thought banning the 10p rate of tax was a good idea, replacing it with a system of tax credits in which even the highest earners can claim?

With the Henley by-election on the horizon, hotly contested by the Lib Dems and Conservatives, the latter are eager to prove themselves capable of running the country, but perhaps it’s a case of better the devil you know.

Nick Clegg, eager to take the seat at the election, has been promoting the issue at the top of the Lib Dem agenda. However, YouGov rates them as still being substantially behind in the popularity polls.

As for the Conservatives, Clegg argues: “Their strategy is simple enough: why bother choosing policies when the government is shooting itself in the foot?”

To be fair there is a large grain of truth in this: the Tories have become so comfortable with the idea that Labour will lose the next general election that they are bordering on the complacent.

While David Cameron has been leader of the party, his standard approach to moan about whatever Labour gets wrong, without offering any kind of alternative, has stood him in good stead, but it is easier to point the finger than take the blame.

Cameron mocked Labour is handling of the 10p tax debacle, while refusing to state whether he had voted for it in the first place.

Labour have made some genuine mistakes, the double sense of division in the party and from the electorate means that they are leaving themselves open for criticism over failing targets instead of actually getting on and doing their jobs.

Labour’s time is not necessarily up, unless they give up. However, the party does need to regroup and re-evaluate a strong line of attack especially in this time of economic uncertainty.

Although it is not down to one man alone, it would help if Brown got a backbone and had some conviction about his policies. Let’s face it: what are the alternatives?

If Brown continues to be a pushover, he might just find himself toppled before the next general election. Nick Clegg’s premonition that ‘insurrection is in the air’ could prove more than just an empty threat if the Prime Minister doesn’t stand up for what he believes.

Britain is notoriously an apathetic nation, but the rising number of protesters taking to the streets indicates things might be about to change.