Giving it all away

In the early 1970s, several major rock acts went through a brief hiatus while members of their personnel pursued solo projects. It was the beginning of a trend which has endured to the present day. Some of these projects were little more than vanity toys to satisfy the whims of the star in question. Some were made because the act was so big, money had long since ceased to be an issue. Following the Quadrophenia double album of 1973, the various members of the Who dispersed to pursue their own ambitions and would not convene again for a group album until 1975 to release the lamentable "Who by Numbers" which sounded tired. In truth, it was only released to fulfill their contractual obligation. That same year, their larger than life drummer Keith Moon released what must go vie as the most bizarre album of the decade. Musically it was lacking but it did sound as though a splendid time was had by all which was to be expected if Moon was involved. Roger Daltrey was also seeking to carve his own furrow and one song in particular suggested potential for the future. Written by Leo Sayer, "Giving it all away" was a reflective song. It tells the wistful story of a man looking back at his early struggles as a musician. In many ways, Daltrey was the ideal man to sing it since the lyrics were largely autobiographical. As the party conference season draws to its close, the contrast between last week's message from Labour and this week's from the Tories is more stark than I'd have imagined possible. "I was just a boy, giving it all away" might have been written for Milliband. Like the song lyric, his speech last week was full of youthful naivety. That first verse of the song begins with "I paid all my dues". In a sense, this sums up George Osborne. It's been a miserable job to have to clear up after the failed years of Labour but now that he has done the hard work, he can justifiably look back and say "I know better now". I listened with great interest to the Tory donor Lord Ashcroft being interviewed this morning. He now runs a political polling company and was asked who he thought would win the next General Election. His answer was illuminating: "It is Labour's to lose". His reasoning was as follows. When the Liberals entered in to coalition, they immediately dropped their share of the vote from about 22% to about 12% due to disgruntled Liberal voters not wanting a coalition arrangement. For every 4 voters who abandoned Clegg, one went over to Cameron but three went over to Milliband. This effect is accentuated by the small number of marginals which Labour need to secure to regain power. Lord Ashcroft was adamant that Labour held the whip hand - until that speech by Milliband last week. Put simply, there are just too many voters who remember all too painfully the last time we had socialism. Broadly speaking, Milliband is asking the turkeys to vote for Christmas. When asked if the Tories needed to seek deals with UKIP, Lord Ashcroft was equally forthright. No need at all because UKIP are essentially a one issue party just as the Referendum Party of James Goldsmith was in the early 1990s. On that occasion the Tories made the mistake of entering in to pacts. They will not do so again. Unless Milliband can neutralise the caustic content of his socialist ambitions, he might have just blown his chances of power. In the likely event of this happening, it will only be a matter of time before the Labour Party starts to realise it plumped for the wrong brother. Rather than giving it all away, the Tories are reverting to type and seeking to build up a budget surplus. Where Milliband sought to woo the voters with an 18 month freeze on home fuel bills, Osborne seeks to freeze fuel duty on petrol and diesel until 2018. He knows that unless he can keep people on the road, our carbon reliant economy will be dead in the water. Keeping them warm at home is one thing, but keeping them on the road and earning is another. Both approaches are ultimately flawed but the predictable tendencies of the British electorate will see them choose red or blue as is their wont. Faced with employment prospects or a temporary reduction in fuel bills, its not hard to see who has won Round 1 in the build up to 2015.