Just when hope and courage are called for, Labour promises bean-counting | George Monbiot

Labour's focus on cutting the deficit means progressive voters will have to look elsewhere for inspiration

Labour's 1983 manifesto is widely known as the longest suicide note in history. Its 2015 manifesto is the longest till receipt in history. It is costed and funded, ordered and itemised, and will electrify anyone who is aroused by the high wild cry of accountancy.

Labour has allowed the Conservatives to frame its politics. Frames are the mental structures through which we perceive the world. The dominant Tory frame, constructed and polished across seven years by its skilled cabinet makers, is that the all-important issue is the deficit. The financial crisis, it claims, was caused not by the banks but by irresponsible government spending, for which the only cure is austerity.

Related: General election 2015: what happened to the push for women's votes? | Anne Perkins

The biggest landowners each receive millions of pounds a year in public money: a vast and toxic scandal