This week marks exactly a year to the general election.
While most of us were enjoying a sunny bank holiday Monday and David Cameron was nowhere to be seen, Ed Miliband came out of the starting gate two days early with a party manifesto pledge to cap rent rises if his party is elected.
As the economy grows, Labour is forced to look for losers to get onside and with house prices spiralling renters are prime targets. Under the plans landlords would be forced to offer three year tenancy agreements with only modest rent increases permitted each year. The plan was attacked by Torys as a throwback to the 1970s and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors said ‘arbitrary caps are not a solution’. But in the Commons on Wednesday Mr Miliband said Mr Cameron had ‘given up on Britain’s nine million renters’.
Pfizer gets stiffed
Politicians have got themselves in a tizzy over American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s bid to take over British firm AstraZeneca. The week started with accusations that Pfizer was only doing it to save tax. But as the week progressed criticism moved to fears that British jobs may be lost over the move. Prime Ministers Questions was dominated by the issue with David Cameron saying he had not yet made up his mind about whether Pfizer should be allowed to take over the firm. However an open letter to the protectionists by City AM editor Alistair Heath on Thursday spoke for many when he asked where they were when AstraZeneca cut jobs ‘without the help of an American parent company’ earlier this year and pointed out how bad politicians are at picking winners and losers in business.
Shale we?
On Thursday an influential Lords report called for the government to get behind shale development in Lancashire due to the economic benefits it has for the country and called on the industry to do more to communicate the benefits. Critics said the Lords did not take great enough consideration of safety fears, but Lee Petts of the North West Energy Task Force said it could create ‘thousands of jobs in the region’.
The Un-credible shrinking man
Ed Miliband was accused of resorting to class warfare when the Labour party released a black and white film targeting disaffected Liberal Democrat voters. In the film Nick Clegg physically shrinks as he gives up his ideals to his ‘new chums’ in the Conservative party. In the film Tory ministers are mocked for not knowing what NHS stands for, cutting taxes for the rich and introducing a bedroom tax. Michael Dugher MP, Labour Vice-Chair and Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, said: ‘You can't trust a word Nick Clegg says. Scratch the surface and Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats have a record of broken promises and propping up the Tory-led Government.’
But Telegraph writer Dan Hodges said: ‘Watch the Labour PPB and then tell me this is a political party serious about forming the next government.’

While LabourList website editor Mark Ferguson said the videoreleased as part of Labour’s campaign for this month’s European elections lacked a ‘positive agenda’ and tweeted ‘squeezing the Lib Dem vote when they’re already in single digits makes no sense’.
John Higginson
Head of Communications, Westbourne Communications