Since the 1970s voters have tended to like initiatives that promise better schools, new hospitals or tougher prison terms, but they are oblivious to the costs involved.

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It does this by using the cost savings from energy efficiency to finance the capital outlays, allowing schools, hospitals, and the like to insulate or install solar panels while sticking to existing budgets, and often producing some savings.

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As long as the issue of the day is spending on schools, hospitals and the like, rather than Mr Brown's personality or his record of economic management, it may be that Labour still has a chance to prosper.

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