Ed Miliband Is The New Labour Leader

[- Paul -]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11412031

 

How exciting

 

Mr Bean His brother came second

[P.K.]

Cameron and his multi-millionaires on the front benches chaps will be delighted.

 

Here's why:

 

 

PK who's your pick for Labour leader?

 

Now that's a very difficult one but they need to sort it asap. The Ins for Fiscal Studies report should have enabled the opposition to give the coalition a right good kicking over their unequal budget and quite rightly. But it's in disarray. I used to vote Lib-Dem but because of Cleggy selling out to Cameron I probably wont vote for them again. As I have a social conscience I guess that just leaves me with Labour so my preference would be for David Milliband. If Ed gets it he will move it back to traditional (for that read unelectable) Labour values. So I hope David but Ed might shade it. If it's Ed he won't get my vote that's for sure.

 

Labour just lost my vote.

 

It's Ed. Mainly due to the union vote - no surprises there then...

[mæŋksmən]

Suppa.

[- Paul -]

[Chinahand]

The one thing which I think should concern the labour party is that the closer people were to Ed Milliband the less likely they were to vote for him - MPs, most of whom will have seen him on a regular basis voted for his brother; Activists and Regular Party members, who will probably have followed him reasonably closely at conferences etc also preferred his brother; it was only Union Members voters - 10% of whom failed to even identify themeselves as labour supporters - that swung the vote in his direction.

 

Ed Milliband's election also presents interesting questions about the information people use to make their decision to vote for someone, and where they get that information from.

 

Ed has been branded the left winger, the guy to fight for left wing causes - mainly government provided services. I've not followed the press coverage prior to his election, but I assume its message hasn't changed too much in the last few days and now the right wing sections of the press are gloating that Labour have choosen the wrong man and reporting Tory glee at how his policies will alienate voters. Maybe.

 

But the thing is Ed was voted in by union members - the people mainly nowadays employed to provide the govenment services he has pledged to fight for.

 

For me that says Unions members want a fight and have picked the person most likely to fight for them.

 

That troubles me because the one thing the left should have learnt in the last year or two is that you can't continue to have things you can't pay for. For the left to claim they can squeeze the rich and continue to pay for public services at their current level is simply untrue.

 

Public services need reform - but the unions don't like it, and so they have picked as labour leader the person portrayed as most likely to stall reform. Activists weren't convinced, MP's weren't convinced - these groups have wider interests as they know Labour can't get elected just by unionized government workers, but the civil servants aren't as interested in that as they are in getting someone to fight for their jobs now.

 

Did the 1970s teach them nothing - delaying reform and militancy doesn't put the unions in a stronger position, and it doesn't help the country.

 

It just disrupts and makes the cuts sharper when they have to come.

 

Civil service jobs and pensions are unsustainable - the UK (and the IOM) cannot afford them, and realism and reforms are what is needed.

 

Ed Milliband has been portrayed as the person who won't be realistic, who'd fight for union lost causes - MPs rejected him, labour party members rejected him, the unions embraced him.

 

I hope the media portrayal of the man is inaccurate - it usually is. But the Unions have embraced that portrayal. That to me is very worrying. It points to Union militancy, and activism - the 70s showed that didn't work.

[- Paul -]

The Milliband brothers both look like they're skiving off from the lower sixth

 

Or I'm getting old

[asitis]

I see that dinosaur the RMT have today come out (BBc News) wanting to prove they can pull his strings !

 

Bad news for labour I think.

[jimbms]

The Milliband brothers both look like they're skiving off from the lower sixth

 

Or I'm getting old

You're getting old

[spook]

Whoever was elected won’t last.

[P.K.]

I see that dinosaur the RMT have today come out (BBc News) wanting to prove they can pull his strings !

 

Bad news for labour I think.

 

Bad news for everyone probably!

 

However, he could be a star. We'll have to wait and see.

 

Re the RMT et al I get the impression the PLP are spitting blood at the election result. It turns out that once the General Secretary of this or that union decided on a candidate (Ed) the other candidates simply couldn't canvass their union members. Basically they were left with no way of contacting them. Not really the most transparent way to run an election.

[Cambon]

Saw BBC Hardtalk early this morning. That RMT bloke Bob Crow is so far out of touch with reality it is frightening. After he had finished complaining about the bankers bonuses and being part of the hard done to working class, the presenter reminded him that he is paid circa £160,000 a year. The look on his face was a picture.

[Chinahand]

Its on iPlayer

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tz7gz/HARDtalk_Bob_Crow_General_Secretary_of_the_Rail_Maritime_and_Transport_Union/

 

He blames the IOM at about 6 mins!

[Cambon]

Its on iPlayer

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk...ransport_Union/

 

He blames the IOM at about 6 mins!

 

Yep, but the UK's problems lay closer to home - in London

[Terse]

Its on iPlayer

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tz7gz/HARDtalk_Bob_Crow_General_Secretary_of_the_Rail_Maritime_and_Transport_Union/

 

He blames the IOM at about 6 mins!

Perhaps our local union rep could do something positive (as if!) and put him right about it.

[P.K.]

This morning I listened to Ed Miliband getting them squeezed on the Today program. After no doubt being prepped to the gills by his staffers he still seemed to me to be floundering a bit. On being asked point blank if his condemnation of previous Labour policies, HIS Labour policies that is, was just a poor attempt to distance himself from the past his denials sounded hollow to me.

 

This is not good. The current Gov have no mandate from the electorate. They are going to make those who can least afford it (i.e. non-tory voters) pay for the excesses of the banks amongst others. A strong opposition is needed to curb their more blatant attempts to shaft the most vulnerable. As it is I don't see it happening under Ed Miliband.