John Major is talking some sense – Labour are lucky Cameron is ignoring him

John Major is a decent man.

He’s not destined to be one of the great leaders of our age – presiding over the fag end of a failing Tory government never afforded him that opportunity. He’s also an extremely astute politician. Don’t let the epoch changing defeat of 1997 blind you to his successes. Beating more charismatic, better known politicians to become Tory leader. Turning around a dying government to secure one last win in 92. Holding his party together through the political failure and sleaze of 92-97 and seeing off the “bastards” (his words) who would have happily toppled him.

And maybe in the end he was “Weak. Weak. Weak” – but it took a certain strength and political nouse to have even got that far, including winning one more election than David Cameron ever has.

So David Cameron might want to take some pointers from someone who triumphed in adversity, battled through a tough economic climate and ruled over a deeply divided government. He might just learn something.

Fortunately though – for Labour, but not the country – it looks like he’s ignoring him, despite the former PM talking some real sense.

His attack on the energy companies is what has garnered most attention, of course. Ed Miliband shifted energy prices onto the front pages of the papers (and their greed has kept them there) but the public have been railing against the unfair price hikes of the Big 6 since long before the politicians caught on.

A windfall tax on energy companies as proposed by Major is more bureaucratic than a price freeze – and ironically requires the state to “interfere” in the market far more to redistribute – but it at least fits the ‘something must be done about these energy companies’ mood which is prevalent in the country. It also provides a means of the Tories pricking Miliband’s bubble and allowing them to claim the mantle of fighting for consumers, if they were so inclined.

Which makes it all the more baffling that the Prime Minister had decided to ignore Majors calls and continue to do…well…nothing.

Similarly on welfare (Major’s comments on this have garnered rather less attention) he talks some quite considerable sense, saying:

“Iain Duncan Smith is trying to reform benefits. I truly wish him well. But it is enormously complicated and unless he is very lucky, which he may not be, or a genius, which the last time I looked wasunproven, he may get some of it wrong. I hope Iain is wise enough to listen to a wide range of opinion because some of his critics will be right. If he listens only to the bean-counters and to cheerleaders concerned only with abuse of the system then he will fail.”

Whilst there are clearly short term political gains to be had from the Tories focussing on “scrounger” rhetoric and a tiny proportion of abuse within the system, the end result of IDS’s strategy at DWP has been abject failure which the Tories will be judged on – spending on benefits has gone up, rather than down over his tenure. As Major rightly notes, he’s listening to those who only care about the bottom line and are obsessed with only a fraction of the real job at hand.

What John Major is saying – in a roundabout way – is that the job of the Department of Work and Pensions should probably spend more time thinking about, you know, work, and reducing unemployment in a sustainable and long term manner.

And we’re very lucky that Cameron isn’t listening to him.

Imagine for a moment, a Tory Party that was focused on getting people back to work (good, decent paid work) as a way of actually reducing the welfare bill for the long term. And imagine that same party was standing up for ‘the little guy’ or ‘the squeezed middle’ by attacking predatory capitalists who were making stupendous profits out of fuel poverty.

That’s a Tory Party that could win a sound majority. That’s a Tory Party that I’d be afraid of.

Thank god we won’t be facing it.