Being Leader of the Labour Party, especially in opposition, is not an easy job. Support is often sympathetically, rather than enthusiastically, given and enemies are never difficult to find. Take this January comment from a senior M.P.:
Ed Miliband needs to put forward his principles and hope they resonate with the people of Britain. He has already started to do this by attacking the poor ethics of the ‘get rich quick and don’t give a toss’ merchants that have dominated British business for too long. Unfortunately, Cameron and Clegg have both been quick to try to steal those ideas for themselves. Not bad for a man who supposedly has no direction and poor leadership – having the Prime Minister and his deputy trying to muscle in on his ground.
To my mind, Miliband has one real problem at the moment, and it is a substantial one. He’s not being himself. A recent set-piece speech included an urge to David Cameron to “..bring it on”. Whoever wrote that phrase or at least allowed it to stay in the speech needs to be sacked immediately. I cannot for one minute imagine Miliband being the kind of person who would use that phrase. He is not Clint Eastwood. He’s more the kind of bloke you know who has intimate knowledge of tax returns or I.T. requirements. Let him relax and talk to people in his own way. He may not be the most charismatic politician in the world, but that does not matter as long as his substance shows through. At the moment, those around him are not allowing this to be the case.
After years of showmanship, of slick politicians who looked more likely to sell you a photocopier than to provide ideas for the future, the country could benefit from a serious politician who had more substance than style. Ed Miliband could be that politician. But he will only succeed if his advisors realise that he should be allowed to actually be Ed Miliband.
liamstubbslabour@hotmail.co.uk
Twitter - @liamstubbs
Facebook - Liam Stubbs Labour
“The man doesn’t understand the Labour Party. He is isolated, depressed. He won’t last beyond the end of the year.”
Cutting stuff. Although, that quote wasn’t from this January, it was from January 1995. Nor was it from a sitting M.P. but came from the late, great Gwyneth Dunwoody. She was talking about Tony Blair. Twelve and a half years and three General Election victories later, he did go before the end of the year. Despite his failings, he proved a few people wrong along the way, too.Ed Miliband is coming in for the same sort of criticism Blair had to put up with, as well as Wilson did and others in between. People expect the Leader of the Opposition to be able to perform miracles, to storm ahead in opinion polls and to take the country by storm. Even if Ed Miliband did all that, though, would it matter? Neil Kinnock usually had a very healthy lead over Margaret Thatcher in the polls, but that hardly stopped the Conservative gaining a three figure majority in the poll that mattered, in 1987.
Real votes count and in the traditional Tory area of St Albans, Labour took a council seat at a by-election with a huge swing last week. One Council seat may not mean a lot in the great scheme of things, but these were real votes cast in real ballot boxes.Most of the disapproval seems to be coming from the media, or is at least media lead. The two newspapers most vociferous in their criticisms are the Sun and the Times. Both these publications are owned by Rupert Murdoch, whose News International stable is up to its neck in the phone hacking scandal. The one party leader who brought the phone hacking issue to the fore, the one who was willing to break with Murdoch and risk his newspapers ire was Ed Miliband. For this reason, should we be surprised that they are turning on him? The Times published a disgraceful cartoon last summer, showing one starving child in the Horn of Africa saying to another “I’ve had a bellyful of phone hacking”. This amply demonstrates the low standards the Murdoch empire will stoop to in trying to deflect attention away from their disgusting behaviour. Stirring opposition to Miliband is another ruse to this very end. Remove him, the theory goes, and his successor may not make such a principled stand. Fortunately, not everyone has the same moral cowardice practised by News International on a daily basis.
I would accept, however, that Miliband is tainted by association. Outgoing governments are not popular – if they were, they would not be outgoing Governments. Labour were rightly criticised for over spending, but are being wrongly blamed for the majority of the current economic problems. It was Gordon Brown who made the Child Trust Fund universal, rather than only applicable to those who truly needed it. It was not Gordon Brown who caused chaos in the Eurozone. It was Labour who failed to impose stricter regulation on the banks. It was not Labour who allowed American banks to become so heavily involved in the sub-prime market. Labour have to be honest about their failings in Government. They do not have to accept the ridiculous and dishonest Tory line that the current situation is all down to Labour.Ed Miliband needs to put forward his principles and hope they resonate with the people of Britain. He has already started to do this by attacking the poor ethics of the ‘get rich quick and don’t give a toss’ merchants that have dominated British business for too long. Unfortunately, Cameron and Clegg have both been quick to try to steal those ideas for themselves. Not bad for a man who supposedly has no direction and poor leadership – having the Prime Minister and his deputy trying to muscle in on his ground.
To my mind, Miliband has one real problem at the moment, and it is a substantial one. He’s not being himself. A recent set-piece speech included an urge to David Cameron to “..bring it on”. Whoever wrote that phrase or at least allowed it to stay in the speech needs to be sacked immediately. I cannot for one minute imagine Miliband being the kind of person who would use that phrase. He is not Clint Eastwood. He’s more the kind of bloke you know who has intimate knowledge of tax returns or I.T. requirements. Let him relax and talk to people in his own way. He may not be the most charismatic politician in the world, but that does not matter as long as his substance shows through. At the moment, those around him are not allowing this to be the case.
After years of showmanship, of slick politicians who looked more likely to sell you a photocopier than to provide ideas for the future, the country could benefit from a serious politician who had more substance than style. Ed Miliband could be that politician. But he will only succeed if his advisors realise that he should be allowed to actually be Ed Miliband.
liamstubbslabour@hotmail.co.uk
Twitter - @liamstubbs
Facebook - Liam Stubbs Labour
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