For me the most interesting point in that Article is that Ed has few allies left. He has taken on virtually every powerful group both inside and outside his party. Whilst undeniably brave and not without reason, it has left him very exposed.
This was the other bit that stuck in the mind from the article
The Tories had been planning to make speeches attacking him over the next few days; these have now been shelved. “Why should I bother,” asks one Tory minister, “when Labour does it so well?”
For me the most interesting point in that Article is that Ed has few allies left. He has taken on virtually every powerful group both inside and outside his party. Whilst undeniably brave and not without reason, it has left him very exposed.
For me the most interesting point in that Article is that Ed has few allies left. He has taken on virtually every powerful group both inside and outside his party. Whilst undeniably brave and not without reason, it has left him very exposed.
There is nothing particularly brave about upsetting your own team without a very good reason. There was nothing brave about Falkirk. It was just stupid.
As our "labour insider" who may or may not have been a very good friend of Ed Balls, possibly even his best friend, pointed out in a highly percipient thread on here the loss of Tom Watson meant that Ed was vulnerable. The Labour machine is just not protecting its leader anymore. How Ed must reflect on the time that Labour had a lunatic in charge of the country and everyone in the party was too scared to say anything about it. Changed days indeed.
For me the most interesting point in that Article is that Ed has few allies left. He has taken on virtually every powerful group both inside and outside his party. Whilst undeniably brave and not without reason, it has left him very exposed.
But surely you don't worry that his leadership is seriously threatened, still less he'll resign?
Resignation ? After he's wrecked David's politcal career ? Only if family means nothing to him.
The key point about these 'Ed is not up to it' articles is that they are often being written by journalists who aren't natural fans of Cameron. Journalists with access. Journalists with contacts. And journalists who have Labour politicians telling them, off the record, that they don't think they can win with Ed Miliband.
Now I don't want Ed Miliband to win the next election. I think Ed is okay. But I don't think the current Labour front bench is anywhere near up to running the country. Intellectually and in terms of experience and political nous they aren't anywhere near the quality of the 1997 Labour front bench. Nowhere near.
But as a non-Labour supporter, I think he can win. So if I think that, why are his supposed backers talking him down? And they obviously are talking him down, leading journalists don't just make stuff up. It's poor from Labour and diminishing their chances of seeing Ed win, and another example of how poor and unprepared and intellectually scared they are of actually winning (I am beginning to think many leading Labour people don't actually want to win in 2015, they'd prefer to win in 2020, because they know - when in power - they'd be carrying out exactly the same set of mild cuts and handbrake-austerity as the coalition).
I agree with you that some on the shadow-cabinet are not upto it and some are disloyal.Hopefully,there will be a minor cull soon.
But which opposition leader in the past has achieved what he has.He has managed to humble Murdoch,more press regulation is on the way or the other and he has even managed to stop an unnecessary war.He has managed to do so by tearing the right-wing rulebook.Perhaps his time has come.
"If it really is “the economy stupid” then LAB has a big problem. But is it?"
Yes but not for the stated reason.
The economic strategy of the political class is to use unlimited mass immigration and the law of supply and demand to drive down wage levels. This isn't likely to win votes as GDP growth is meaningless if the distribution is negative for 95% of the population and only positive for 5%.
(It might if it was just the bottom half being deliberately impoverished but it won't be as the US is just finding out because trickle-up and trickle-sideways economics is much bigger than trickle-down e.g if electricians can afford to buy their own houses then that makes work for solicitors and surveyors.)
(Creating artificial housing bubbles at the top end will partially disguise this for a bit.)
Anyway Labour's problem is it doesn't have an alternative startegy. The Blairites and Cameroons want unlimited mass immigration because it acts as economic warfare through supply and demand. Labour's non-Blairite wing may not want it for that reason but they want it for cultural reasons so they're stuck anyway.
The end result of this process (imo) will be both Labour and Tory competing for who can get the 2nd least number of votes.
Eventually, as the original working class population is replaced and the Labour core is no longer split in two then the Labour vote will bounce back.
This is the general case throughout the western world. The "Left" has split their vote through mass immigration and the "Right" are taking advantage of the situation to increase the rich's share of the wealth leading to both being unpopular at once.
For me the most interesting point in that Article is that Ed has few allies left. He has taken on virtually every powerful group both inside and outside his party. Whilst undeniably brave and not without reason, it has left him very exposed.
But surely you don't worry that his leadership is seriously threatened, still less he'll resign?
Who knows what will happen. Conference will be important.
His strength rests on his poll lead and that there is currently no obvious alternative.
@Alanbrooke Ed Miliband never built up a core group of allies within the Labour party that were capable of taking on the other big beasts before he became the Leader. With both Ed Miliband and Ed Balls entering the Leadership race, it split the Brownite supporters as well. What sealed the deal for Ed Miliband was the Unite Union backing on an anyone but David Miliband ticket. But that backing came from the previous Unite boss, and it was never a ringing endorsement of Ed Miliband the politician. Ironically, Ed Miliband is left relying on former David Miliband supporters like Jim Murphy to shore up him up in his Shadow Cabinet, meanwhile the Brownite/Unions factions get ever more disgruntled with him as Tom Watson and Len McCluskey rattle their sabres to undermine him.
Its a replay of Gordon Brown's Labour Leadership. All the same ugly ruthless and ambitious Labour tribal politics are on display,and all lead to a Labour Leader who portrays an indecisiveness and a lack of direction. And when you combine that with the lack of any redeeming charismatic media presence or Statesman like Leadership qualities on the political stage, you are left with a politician who cannot even think on his feet, never mind command his own party.
There is absolutely nothing there to make Ed Miliband a more attractive option to the voters, he simple has not built up a relationship with the electorate. And like Gordon Brown before him, he refuses to understand that the public don't think its too much to ask to know a little bit more about the man behind the politician when they are electing a Prime Minister. Thatcher, Major, Blair and Cameron all got this, so it really surprised me when I saw Ed Miliband stubbornly making the same mistakes that his old boss did when he was elected.
Like Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband has left a vacuum where his personality and his policy direction should have been stamped, the media and the electorate have now filled that gap for him. David Cameron recently got a bit of hassle from the media when his 'official' holiday snaps were deemed boring and they attempted to jazz them up with those beach photos. No one even cared, much less bothered to bitch at the total lack of any photo opportunities from Ed Miliband on his recent holidays. That is when the alarm bells should have really started ringing in his Office, and that is because it showed that neither the public or media even cared if he disappeared from view for weeks on end.
Comments
The Tories had been planning to make speeches attacking him over the next few days; these have now been shelved. “Why should I bother,” asks one Tory minister, “when Labour does it so well?”
As our "labour insider" who may or may not have been a very good friend of Ed Balls, possibly even his best friend, pointed out in a highly percipient thread on here the loss of Tom Watson meant that Ed was vulnerable. The Labour machine is just not protecting its leader anymore. How Ed must reflect on the time that Labour had a lunatic in charge of the country and everyone in the party was too scared to say anything about it. Changed days indeed.
But which opposition leader in the past has achieved what he has.He has managed to humble Murdoch,more press regulation is on the way or the other and he has even managed to stop an unnecessary war.He has managed to do so by tearing the right-wing rulebook.Perhaps his time has come.
Yes but not for the stated reason.
The economic strategy of the political class is to use unlimited mass immigration and the law of supply and demand to drive down wage levels. This isn't likely to win votes as GDP growth is meaningless if the distribution is negative for 95% of the population and only positive for 5%.
(It might if it was just the bottom half being deliberately impoverished but it won't be as the US is just finding out because trickle-up and trickle-sideways economics is much bigger than trickle-down e.g if electricians can afford to buy their own houses then that makes work for solicitors and surveyors.)
(Creating artificial housing bubbles at the top end will partially disguise this for a bit.)
Anyway Labour's problem is it doesn't have an alternative startegy. The Blairites and Cameroons want unlimited mass immigration because it acts as economic warfare through supply and demand. Labour's non-Blairite wing may not want it for that reason but they want it for cultural reasons so they're stuck anyway.
The end result of this process (imo) will be both Labour and Tory competing for who can get the 2nd least number of votes.
Eventually, as the original working class population is replaced and the Labour core is no longer split in two then the Labour vote will bounce back.
This is the general case throughout the western world. The "Left" has split their vote through mass immigration and the "Right" are taking advantage of the situation to increase the rich's share of the wealth leading to both being unpopular at once.
His strength rests on his poll lead and that there is currently no obvious alternative.
Insults, its all you have .
Try you know, getting a life.
Its a replay of Gordon Brown's Labour Leadership. All the same ugly ruthless and ambitious Labour tribal politics are on display,and all lead to a Labour Leader who portrays an indecisiveness and a lack of direction. And when you combine that with the lack of any redeeming charismatic media presence or Statesman like Leadership qualities on the political stage, you are left with a politician who cannot even think on his feet, never mind command his own party.
There is absolutely nothing there to make Ed Miliband a more attractive option to the voters, he simple has not built up a relationship with the electorate. And like Gordon Brown before him, he refuses to understand that the public don't think its too much to ask to know a little bit more about the man behind the politician when they are electing a Prime Minister. Thatcher, Major, Blair and Cameron all got this, so it really surprised me when I saw Ed Miliband stubbornly making the same mistakes that his old boss did when he was elected.
Like Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband has left a vacuum where his personality and his policy direction should have been stamped, the media and the electorate have now filled that gap for him. David Cameron recently got a bit of hassle from the media when his 'official' holiday snaps were deemed boring and they attempted to jazz them up with those beach photos. No one even cared, much less bothered to bitch at the total lack of any photo opportunities from Ed Miliband on his recent holidays. That is when the alarm bells should have really started ringing in his Office, and that is because it showed that neither the public or media even cared if he disappeared from view for weeks on end.