The beam in your own eye.

Matthew 3:7

And why behold you the mote that is in your brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in your own eye?

Gordon Brown asked today that we should look again, acknowledging that Labour is not perfect, but urged Britain to take a second look at his party - and a long hard look at the Conservatives.

Sky.

Gordon Brown has told voters he knows Labour is not perfect, but urged Britain to take a second look at his party - and a long hard look at the Conservatives.

The Prime Minister unveiled Labour's vision for the country under the slogan "A Future Fair For All" at a rally in Coventry.
Speaking on his 59th birthday, Mr Brown said his party was committed to standing up "for the many, not the few".
On his way to the podium while Jackie Wilson's (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher played, the PM greeted Labour activists gathered to hear his speech.
He told them: "I know that Labour hasn't done everything right. And I know – really, I know – that I'm not perfect.
"But I know where I come from, I know what I stand for, and I know who I came into politics to represent.
"And if you, like me, are from Britain's mainstream majority – from an ordinary family that wants to get on and not simply get by, then my message to you today is simple.
"Take a second look at us - and take a long hard look at them."
Mr Brown accused the Tories of planning to "kick away the ladders of opportunity" and feigning "progressive" values.
"When you peel away the veneer and actually look at what their policies mean, what you see is it's not the new economics of the future, it's the same old Conservative economics of the past," he said.
"They are not the party of Britain's mainstream majority and have policies that give most benefit for the few."
He added: "Can they claim they know the aspirations of mainstream Britain when they so clearly understand so little of how we live?"

Well, let us take a second look at Labour.

Record peacetime debt.
Record peacetime deficit.
The first fascist MEP elected to the European Parliament.
UK drops from 7th to 24th in international maths and literacy rankings.
100 new taxes on the middle class.
Council taxes double for the middle classes.
Council tax revaluation if Labour are voted back in.
4,300 petty new laws.
Authoritarian police state oppressing legitimate protest, photography and law abiding citizens.
Doubled the length of tax law and created a mass of new regulations.
Sold the UK's gold reserves at the bottom of the market.
Ripped up a system of financial regulation proven over 300 years; 10 years later the UK has 5 Failed banks.
Destroyed the best private pension provision in europe, taking £100bn from prudent pensioners.
Destroyed more of the UK's manufacturing sector than Thatcher.
Politicisation of the police, the civil service, education.

Falling productivity in public sector despite 48% real-terms increase in spending.
Overseen the rise of the unaccountable, unsackable, feather-bedded bureaucrat, taking control over every aspect of people's lives.
New GP contract increased average pay to £100,000.
Most GPs refuse to provide care during evenings and weekends.
Arrest of an opposition MP for doing his job.
House prices unaffordable for workers on average salaries.
Soaring knife and violent crime in our cities.
Debasement of politics, endless re-announcements of the same policy, cash for peerages, lies, spin and deceit.
200+ service personal killed.
First non-jury Crown court trials.

Abolished century old practises of Parliament; House of Lords, Life Peers, Lord Chancellor's department, Lord Chancellor deminished

3 million immigrants invited into the UK to take 81% of all new jobs created.
1 million young people unemployed.
Jacqui Smith.
Foot and mouth crisis (twice)
Farm payments
Tax credits

Afghanistan war
Iraq war
Under funded ill-equipped Forces

Privatised large parts of defence establishment for short term gain
PFI
Home Office failures
Uncontrolled immigration (am I a racist for mentioning immigration, dear me)
NHS in tatters
School standards at the lowest ever
Thousands of knee jerk badly written laws
Rampant EU fraud
EU ignoring its own people
EU referendum promise reneged
Treaty/Constitution
Northern Rock

RBS
HMRC
Lost data – child benefit and dvlc
Donorgate

Climategate
Cash for Honours
Single families
Economy in complete tatters
First time buyers taken out of market
Rich and poor divide becoming bigger
Plenty of tax rises – both direct and indirect
Uncontrolled private sector
Crime out of control
Young deaths
Guns on our streets
NO ELECTION
Quangos controlling parliament
Populist catholicism

H/T 13th Spitfire


Brown stated "Can they claim they know the aspirations of mainstream Britain when they so clearly understand so little of how we live?"

It seems to me that few politicians know how we live, how angry we've become at them and how disappointed we are in the system they use to lord it over us. Does Gordon Brown in his pampered (27 years an MP) parliamentary existence know what it's like in the real world? Who the hell is this "We" he's talking about, certainly it's not me that he has anything in common with and I doubt he has much in common with anyone other than the Westminster bubble. I don't live in a free house, I don't get subsidised drinks and food at my place of work, I don't get generous (to say the least) allowances, pensions and expenses, I don't fiddle said expenses either, nor do I  get a ministerial car as and when needed.
Gordon Brown clearly hasn't a clue how the rest of us live because he doesn't live like the rest of us, nor do any of the top politicians in the country so his claim of understanding how we live is patronising in the extreme.
Ding Cameron may have his faults, but they're a mote compared to Browns beam.