Lies, damn lies and Gordon Brown

Before I take a look at the Tories and the Lib Dems, the recent little row about Labour’s lies over spending illustrates perfectly why they are so monumentally screwed at the next election.

Labour spent the summer wittering on about how David Cameron was ‘Mr 10%’ over his plans to cut public spending by 10%.  Brilliantly, this line of attack is still up on the website, despite the revelation that the Labour Party plans to cut departmental spending by, um, 9.3%.  Fraser Nelson pointed out, repeatedly, that this figure was an extrapolation from Labour’s own budget, but, when asked about this in a press conference, Gordon Brown lied again, saying the figures were wrong and that spending was set to increase.

Caught out by the leaking of a Treasury document which showed precisely how much spending was to be cut by, Brown has been faced with a bit of a poser.  How can he wriggle off this hook?  Not like this.

"Under no circumstances have we done anything other than publish the documentation that was essential at the budget," Brown said. "We are prepared to discuss and debate the figures that have arisen from that."

What does this even mean?  How on earth have Labour landed themselves with a Prime Minister so utterly incapable of communication?  I mean, it’s bad enough having a liar as a leader, but an incompetent, inarticulate, emotionally illiterate liar?  That’s got to hurt.