Have they learnt the lesson of Cameron’s easy ride?

Interesting piece from the Speccie’s James Forsyth in the Mail on Sunday on the coalition’s attack plans for when Dave or EdM is elected on the afternoon of September 25th.

He writes: “This desire to launch an instant strike is a product of David Cameron’s own experience. When he became Tory leader in 2005, Brown wanted to go for him straight away but Tony Blair overruled him, arguing that they needed to see what kind of leader Cameron would be. This, in the words of one Tory insider, gave the new leadership ‘the breathing space we needed’. The rest, as they say, is history…

…The Tories remember how Labour made their new leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan-Smith look like losers within months of them taking on the job and want to do the same to the winning Miliband.”

The focus will be on trying to get them to answer two questions: Why didn’t they do more to stop Labour from building up the deficit and what’s their alternative?

In many ways the leaderless Labour has had it easy since the election. There have been very few concerted attacks on their position apart from reminder of what Liam Byrne wrote in his famous handover note.

I agree with Forsyth’s conclusion that only when the new leader is in place will the real politics begin. Maybe the Miliband-led Labour will find it harder to get a consistent polling lead after all.

Mike Smithson