At the outset of the election campaign, the Conservatives and Labour appeared destined to remain in their well-dug trenches. The former deployed their advantage on economic management and leadership, the latter its superiority on the NHS and living standards. An attritional contest resulted, with neither side risking excursions into foreign territory.
The parties’ manifesto launches marked the moment at which they broke free from their strategic bounds. Labour’s austere document devoted its first page to fiscal rectitude, promising a “Budget responsibility lock”, which would ensure that the deficit is cut every year. That of the Tories, conversely, made no reference to the £90bn hole in the public finances. Beneath the Fabian-
style declaration that “We have a plan for every stage of your life”, its opening section instead offered spending increases and tax cuts: 30 hours of free childcare a week, £8bn more for the NHS, the extension of “Right to Buy” to housing association tenants and a tax-free minimum wage.
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