Senior Labour politicians who need a good smack

I am becoming increasingly frustrated these days when I hear Labour politicians being interviewed, notably Ed Miliband and Liam Byrne. Perhaps I am just being a grumpy old man, but their constant refusal to commit themselves to any firm policies is really rather irksome and I want to give them a good smack on their leg. The excuse for non-commitment is usually, 'let's wait and see what the state of the economy is at the time of the next election'. This is ridiculous. We all know the economy will be in about the same state as it is now. Perhaps a little worse, perhaps a little better, but fundamentally the same. So we know what the 'country will be able to afford', don't we ? Worse still is their refusal to tell us what they actually believe in. For example the issue of whether benefits for senior citizen pensioners should be means tested or not, or even some of them abolished is a fundamental question. It should not be a matter of 'what the country can afford ?'it should be a matter of what do you believe is right. If you are a social democrat or left of centre politician you MUST have views on such issues. Why not tell us what they are and have done with it ? Similarly, Labour politicians spend large parts of any interview they face trying to tell us how badly we are being governed by the coalition. We can make our own minds up about that, thank you. Slagging off the government is not an acceptable excuse for refusing to tell us what you actually believe in, is it Ed ? Is it Liam ? Smack! This kind of pragmatic managerialism combined with obfuscation is an insult to the origins of the Labour Party. I know that class based politics is seriously out of date, but that is not a reason for them refusing to tell us what they believe in. We expect Conservatives to be pragmatic and cautious - it is part of their tradition, but it will not do for Labour. No wonder Boris and Nigel are doing well. At least they tell us what they think. What I would really like to hear, apart from the sound of a leg being smacked, on the radio is one of the increasingly frustrated interviewers say something like, ' Well I have asked you this question three times and you continually refuse to answer it and insist on merely criticising the government so I am going to terminate this interview. Thank you. Smack !