Election `97: Mandelson defends film's angelic vision

Old film buffs may find a comforting similarity with the final message from New Labour in the party's final election campaign broadcast tonight which features an angel.

A winged taxi-driver, played by screen star Peter Postlethwaite, shows a father, Tom, and his daughter, Becky, how bad life could be under a fifth Conservative Government, where it never stops raining, and they have to wait six hours for treatment in a hospital accident and emergency unit.

The idea of the angel may well have been borrowed from the 1946 Hollywood movie, It's a Wonderful Life, a "weepy" often repeated at Christmas, in which James Stewart, playing a suicidal drunk, is shown by an angel called Clarence what life could be like without him.

Both films have a happy ending, with the Labour PEB offering voters the chance to avoid the dire future coming to pass. When it screened in a preview last night, it was met by titters from hard-hearted political correspondents.

It is likely to be criticised as a negative end to a negative campaign, and for failing to offer any real glimpse of what life would be like under Labour, except that the sun is shining.

Peter Mandelson, Labour's campaign chief, defended the film and denied it carried a negative message.

"We thought we would end it (the campaign) on a charming note with our own divine messenger or guardian angel ... Angels are switchers."

Mr Postlethwaite, who was the band leader in the hit film Brassed Off, and also played a murdering sergeant in the TV series Sharpe, gave his services free of charge.

The Liberal Democrat leader, Paddy Ashdown, last night in contrast to Labour's angel ended his party's final election broadcast by reinforcing the Liberal Democrat manifesto commitments to increase taxes to pay for higher spending on education, a referendum on Europe, and a promise of more nurses and doctors in the NHS.

Liberal Democrat leaders claim they are winning over voters with their more positive campaign. There are rumblings in the Labour camp about the "safety first" nature of Labour's campaign, although those will be silenced if Labour win by a landslide.