diff --git a/lib/OpenLayers/Renderer/VML.js b/lib/OpenLayers/Renderer/VML.js
index b7b240a271..b3d64ea5c6 100644
--- a/lib/OpenLayers/Renderer/VML.js
+++ b/lib/OpenLayers/Renderer/VML.js
@@ -816,7 +816,10 @@ OpenLayers.Renderer.VML = OpenLayers.Class(OpenLayers.Renderer.Elements, {
             textbox.style.fontWeight = style.fontWeight;
         }
         textbox.style.whiteSpace = "nowrap";
-        textbox.inset = "0px,0px,0px,0px";
+        // fun with IE: IE7 in standards compliant mode does not display any
+        // text with a left inset of 0. So we set this to 1px and subtract one
+        // pixel later when we set label.style.left
+        textbox.inset = "1px,0px,0px,0px";
 
         if(!label.parentNode) {
             label.appendChild(textbox);
@@ -828,7 +831,7 @@ OpenLayers.Renderer.VML = OpenLayers.Class(OpenLayers.Renderer.Elements, {
             (OpenLayers.Renderer.VML.LABEL_SHIFT[align.substr(0,1)]);
         var yshift = textbox.clientHeight *
             (OpenLayers.Renderer.VML.LABEL_SHIFT[align.substr(1,1)]);
-        label.style.left = parseInt(label.style.left)-xshift+"px";
+        label.style.left = parseInt(label.style.left)-xshift-1+"px";
         label.style.top = parseInt(label.style.top)+yshift+"px";
     },