The man with a plan for Labour election victory
MIL, Nov 1, 2004.
London - According to Guardian, Alan Milburn famously left the cabinet to spend more time with his family and now, back in the cabinet organising Labour's general election, his family is spending more time with him.
Mr Milburn, six weeks into his new job, appears to have got though his rocky re-entry when everything he said was read through the prism of an attack on the ousted Brownites. Indeed he makes a point of stressing that people from the Treasury are sitting on the newly key election committees. "We are up and running and everyone has bought into it," he says.
He even refers admiringly to the "progressive consensus", the aspiration set out for Labour by Gordon Brown in a major speech a fortnight ago.
According to Guardian, he acknowledges the media search for division "will always happen. You're faced with a choice about this all the time. Do you not do an interview or make a speech because you're afraid of the headline? But you cannot get yourself into that position." His big message is that Labour now has an election machine and battle plan, different from the two previous elections, and it will strive to inspire, not just scrape home into a third term.
"All the time, events swish around you, but you have to have a plan and stick to it," he says. "Our plan is first set out the record and achievement, emphasise the pride in Britain, and that Britain is working; secondly make a strong 'future offer' that reconnects and reassembles the New Labour coalition. Lastly, set out the dividing lines with our political opponents so that the next election becomes a choice for the country, not a referendum on this government ."
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