What’s Sarkozy done to Gord’s core argument?
Can he go on boasting that the world’s following Britain?
For the past five months a key element in the government’s economic crisis rhetoric has been that its approach has been followed or matched by the rest of the world.
This line has been used, with some effect, time and time again to batter the Tories in general and isolate David Cameron in particular. It’s become a feature of almost every PMQs.
So its not surprising that the Number 10 spin operation has been in full flow today following President Sarkozy’s TV comments last night about not repeating Britain’s “mistakes”. The French leader was particularly scathing about the Labour’s VAT cut which he said had “absolutely not worked”. Ouch!
- The issue here is not what’s right or wrong for the economy but the massive reliance Brown has been placing on Britain’s international leadership role – something that slipped out in his “saviour of the world” hubris.
Of course Sarkozy had his own political reasons and things are not going as well for him as he might like. But in UK political terms he has provided a gift to the opposition and George Osborne was quick to put the boot in.
The next scheduled major poll is from Populus for the Times. My understanding is that fieldwork started today and will continue until Sunday. There could be other polls in the Sunday papers but none are scheduled.
