Does anyone seriously believe that swallowing Tory austerity measures whole makes Labour credible?  

There seems to be a plague going round the Shadow Cabinet, which is quite catching, the symptoms of which appear to be seriously muddled economic and political thinking.   After several comrades went down with this malady over the New Year period, the bug appears to have re-surfaced again, to judge by today’s remarks from the foreign affairs spokesman as reported by Guardian political journalists who seem intent on transmitting the disease.   Apparently despite having committed the party (without any consultation or debate) to retaining all the Tory cuts and accepting the Tory pay freeze to 2020, we still need to talk “a lot more” about bringing the deficit down.   He insisted that just because Conservative austerity economics failed, Labour would not become credible – to become credible, Labour needs to adopt the same kind of austerity policies...