Don’t paint it black: Politicians may be selling, but people are not buying

Black Wednesday was the biggie – September 16^th 1992, the humiliating collapse of Britain’s economic policy. That was a black day. Black Monday had come earlier – October 19^th 1987, a day of panic and tumbling share prices globally, following on (in the UK) from a terrible storm that had hit the south east the previous Thursday night, the one that Michael Fish had memorably said was not going to happen.

At one point last week I thought we were on the brink of another day of the week – Thursday – being awarded the “black” label, for the Conservatives anyway, when migration figures showed that David Cameron had failed hopelessly to live up to his “no ifs, no buts” promise, Andrew Mitchell lost his libel case and the latest Ashcroft polls revealed more trouble for the Tories (as well as for Nick Clegg).

But then came Black Friday – not in fact so called because of gloom and doom – but a pretty dark addition to British life nonetheless, and an unwelcome import from America. The desperate hunt for consumer goods and pre-Christmas “bargains” led to some pretty unattractive scenes.

Perhaps the desperation of some shoppers confirms the extent of the economic squeeze so many are feeling. Maybe people just like a bargain. Who doesn’t? I may be a joyless, uptight lefty, but I’d be happy to save a few hundred quid on something I really wanted (or preferably needed) to buy.

Too much sneering at those making the most of the chance to save money would be the blogging equivalent of an unwisely circulated photo of a St George’s flag-bedecked house. But we can’t look on at the images of customers grappling both with gigantic tellys and each other and feel too good about it, surely. We all need to shop, and it is nice to own decent quality stuff, but a good society offers other, less mercantile pursuits to engage in with similar enthusiasm. Is a 36” inch high def telly really so much better than the 32” inch one that you bought only a couple of years ago? There is a consumerist trap here that it is easy to fall in to. And by the way, if you thought it was all over on Friday… no. Today we are going to enjoy “cyber Monday”, apparently, and another busy day of purchasing.

The political stalemate we seem to be wallowing in, with all three major UK parties failing to win over enough voters, to the benefit of Ukip, the SNP and the Greens, is almost reinforced by those scenes of rampant shopping. Modern communications and marketing techniques, as favoured by business, have been deployed by the old parties, and yet they fail to generate even a fraction of the energy and commitment shown by the Black Friday consumers. Politicians are selling, but people are not buying.

In this context a further five a bit months of claim and counter-claim hardly gladdens the heart. This week we will get the latest burst of George Osborne’s increasingly fantastic, in the old sense of the word, boasts. All serious economic commentators are clear that the Chancellor has failed, again and again, to meet his own targets on the deficit. This he describes as “getting the public finances under control”. Billions of pounds are being discovered on magic money trees, which have been planted, we must presume, in a tax-efficient way in a distant corner of Scotland. Osbornomics is a curious discipline in which EU bills are “halved” by taking the money you were going to get as a rebate and putting it towards your current costs. £7bn of tax cuts will be found just like that. Health budget money can be counted twice, and imaginary future savings included in future spending commitments. It is as unbelievable as it is depressing. No wonder voters are turning away.

But if Labour wants these same voters to come flocking back on May 7^th next year as if it were the first day of the sales, or indeed Black Thursday/Friday, it will have to give people something to feel positive about. The critique, being made again today by Ed Miliband, is sound. Clearly the deficit is rising because tax receipts are down. Tax receipts are down because wages are too low. Wages are too low because the economy is not creating enough good, productive jobs. All this is true.

But Labour needs an uplifting, believable and attractive counter-offer if it wants its “shoppers” to come back.