Balls and Miliband have begun to make the case for “good borrowing” – but they need to be bolder and louder about it

Only ten days ago I wrote for the Times Thunderer column, urging Labour to make the case for borrowing – specifically “good borrowing” to fund infrastructure (especially housing) and stimulate growth. It was a cry borne more out of desperation at an unwillingness to even say “the B word” rather than out of any expectation that Miliband and Balls would do anything of the sort.

And yet this weekend that’s exactly what both Balls and Miliband have done – albeit tentatively.

Yesterday I noted that Miliband’s speech on fiscal discipline was very clear about the kid of borrowing that he was against – that which would be spent on “day to day” budgets. But he was careful not to rule out borrowing to invest in bricks and mortar – housing – as a means of improving Britain’s poor quality infrastructure, and boosting growth.

A senior Labour source told me this afternoon that the party’s messaging will deploy the following metaphor:

“People understand the distinction between borrowing to pay for your weekly shop or a big night out that yields no long term return – and investing in an asset like a home which can rise in value.”

It’s an interesting metaphor, and similar to one that Asher Dresner – now A Miliband speechwriter – once used in a blog for LabourList back in 2011, when he said:

“Plugging the deficit is like paying off a mortgage: money is owed, you pay it back regularly, and although you can’t choose not to pay it, you can choose how fast you pay it.

Ordinary, sane, hard-working people pay off the mortgage only at a rate they can afford. They don’t choose to pay it off at such a high monthly rate that they can’t afford to buy basics, like the bus fare, books to read their kids a bedtime story, or paying a plumber to fix a leak that’s flooding their bedroom.”

That kind of terminology is far more accessible that the previous – simplistic but effective – mantras about cuts that were “too far too fast”, and it challenges the homespun and easy to understand Tory metaphor of the credit card (only a moron would compare national debt to a credit card, but we’re nn the realm of politics here, not economics, so it works). It’s good to see Balls and Miliband moving into this territory ahead of Wednesday’s CSR, rather than – as I feared ten days ago “wait(ing) until January 2015 to make the case for more borrowing, and expect to win an election a few months later. That’s not enough time to win the argument in the face of what would be an immense Tory-led media onslaught”.

Right now – as our recent polling showed – there’s public support for borrowing to invest (especially in housing). But if this is to be Labour’s strategy, both Balls and Miliband will need to be bolder in there advocacy of it. Saying that we’d borrow to build homes is ambitious, credible and sensible. It is not something that we should be timid about, or that we should be forced to admit under duress.

The case has begun to be made, and there’s time to win the argument – that’s a relief. But it will only be won if it’s made boldly, loudly and with confidence.

And there’s no better chance this week to do so.