One of the hoariest political cliches is that timing is everything. But beyond the timing of an election, or a cabinet shuffle and other purely strategic calculations, there is another arena where it is equally true: new program launches.
To the eternal frustration of social democrats, who are often the first to campaign for progressive social and economic justice policies in the Western democracies, it is often a larger party to their right who finally implements them and gets the political credit.