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Talking of image, and perhaps attempting to look relaxed and conversational, Sir Keir does his interviews with us standing up and almost always leaning to his left, resting his arm against a railing or anything nearby.<\/p>\n
The strategic aim of the promises set out by the party this week is to give their candidates and senior figures something to talk about between now and the moment the general election is actually called.<\/p>\n
It is what politicians like to call their “retail offer” \u2013 ideas they can summarise in a doorstep-ready sentence or two and repeat over and over again until people notice.<\/p>\n
Far from everything is there \u2013 for instance housing isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Expect the party to address that vital topic for so many people in the coming days.<\/p>\n
Insiders claim the absence of an idea from the six “first steps” doesn\u2019t mean it is no longer a priority.<\/p>\n
They cite the National Minimum Wage, a flagship idea of the Labour government of the late 1990s, which was in the party\u2019s manifesto in 1997, but was not on their pledge card at the time.<\/p>\n
Put together, the theatre of the launch and the words themselves, I witness Labour with a craving for power I haven\u2019t seen before.<\/p>\n
It is a longing for office grounded in and further fuelled by how often it has failed to make it there, not just in the last decade but the last century.<\/p>\n
Psychology with that amount of history weighs heavy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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