There's a common complaint among the political commentariat these days that election campaigns are getting longer and longer. So once elected, governments have less and less time to actually govern before they're thrown back into election mode. From this POV, Labour are doing the right thing by holding most of their election policy announcements for the 6 months between Budget Day and the election.
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But this ignores the whole logic of an adversarial electoral system. Which is that the opposition to the government of the day are also represented in the larger governing system. So MPs representing it can point out problems with policy, and what they'd do instead if they had a majority.
This doesn't work if opposition parties base their entire political strategy on keeping their powder dry for the next election. Presenting no policy alternatives, to evade media accountability.
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