Miliband: Labour to devolve power to communities to insulate 5 million lofts over next ten years #lab14
Hang on - didn't Gordon Brown already use that one on at least three of his conference speeches?
Either they are going to have to reinsulate some houses they have already insulated, or they're going to have to offer free insulation to private landlords and others who normally don't qualify through this sort of scheme.
This sounds like the one sensible thing he's suggested so far. Insulating houses actually saves the nation money in terms of energy costs, so it a free win in reducing emissions.
I have been self employed and my employer was clearly a racist bigot. 100% of my employees (myself) were white middle class males and I failed completely to be either black or female so that I could tick myself in two more boxes. When I left that employment I didn't even get any severance pay, bastard that I am.
As a matter of interest, would it be permissible to make yourself redundant from your own company every year, so as to dodge income tax on the first £30k?
"Reform the House of Lords to create a Senate of the nations and regions" - I presume that's nations for Scotland, Wales and NI, and regions for England.
A little murkier than that. Cornwall tends to claim itself a nation and has been pushing for an assembly (of course the may go with a whole South West region).
Hang on. A billion from tax avoidance loophole closing, and taxes on mansions and tobacco firms. Will that pay for 8,000 GPs and 20,000 nurses (and more, I think)?
Incidentally, everybody in Britain will die of the Black Death if you vote Conservative.
Imagine how much cheaper it would have been to get an extra 8000 GPs if Labour hadn't given a ridiculously generous settlement as well as letting them off out of hours duties (putting more pressure on A&E and resulted in the need for more out of hours care centres with more GPs on more money, many of which are private).
8000 is what, a £1 billion a year in salaries plus training costs.
Not a fan of schoolchildren voting. He wants the Lords to become a 'Senate of the Nations'. And English devolution.
By which he means no English Parliament or English votes for English laws, but sounds like rubbish local devolution. He still wants a constitutional convention.
Senate of the Nations? Does that mean he wants the same number of seats for England as for Wales and Scotland?
What about NI? Let's say 20 representatives for each nation. So we'd have 20 from England and perhaps 7-8 Sinn Fein.
Miliband mocking Cameron for the Juncker appointment. Failed to mention Blair's 'building alliances' approach of giving away half our rebate for nothing.
Janan Ganesh@JananGanesh·7 mins The PM is a very lucky man.
Tom Newton Dunn@tnewtondunn·7 mins Friends: Grauniad editor @arusbridger now tweeting about Obama rather than Ed's #Lab14 speech. Says it all.
Sunder Katwala@sundersays·9 mins Labour wants 2015 election to be about the NHS. For many Lab supporters, it may be. For more voters: about who is PM, economy & immigration
Miliband mocking Cameron for the Juncker appointment. Failed to mention Blair's 'building alliances' approach of giving away half our rebate for nothing.
And forgetting that Miliband also opposed Juncker - convenient...
Just listened to the interview with the punter who had 900,000 on No in the referendum, having missed the thread completely.
Don't know about anybody else, but he didn't pass the smell test as far as I was concerned. He took 1/4 about an outcome that was as big as 2/5 for a while; he used a Bookie, rather than Betfair, where there was ample liquidity available; he didn't sound or talk like a punter; and he got on for a mega-amount with a firm that regularly knocks back fifty pound punters.
We sure this wasn't just a Hills PR stunt?
Probably, although you would be amazed at how many big punters take worse odds than betfair
Why would anyone, ever take bookie odds when betfair was better?? Mystifying
So how did he get on, Isam?
I can't get 900p on with Hills. Can you?
I can't get anything on the internet or phone, but I'm not banned from all their shops!
I guess if I wrote my name on the bankers draught for 900 large they would clock I was banned and not accept... But you'd just get a mate to put it on wouldn't you?
They'd want to know who and what you were, Isam, no?
A J ELDER-BROWN UKIP @theblindblogger 1m Good! Milliband has just dug his political grave by pledging his allegiance to the EU. Does he not heed what the people think? @UKIP #UKIP
Never mind the PB tories. I'd be looking at your own side if I were you. How long do you give the huge rebellion on English matters and the (England only) mansion tax?
Madness. I guess they've figured their wheeze of importing immigrants is coming to an end so they have to gerrymander the electorate another way.
The latest Populus gives the Conservatives a 41% - 35% lead* in the 18-24 age group.
I'm reassured that most British attempts at gerrymandering have been incompetent: see Labour's introduction of postal voting on demand, used mainly by Tory-voting pensioners, as a prime example.
* Caveat - all the other polls give larger leads to Labour in this age group.
What is it with need a policy idea....insulation.....it get pulled out more often than any other policy. Now it might be sensible to get every bodies homes insulated (you have to question why that isn't already the case that most of the housing stock hasn't been, given Gordon used to promise it every year), but you ever hear at demos.
"What do we want"....
"No not better jobs, schools, hospitals, society....and end to faux auserity....No, what we want....home insulation on the state"
"when do we want it.... "
"well not that urgently because there has been loads of government schemes and I didn't bother applying for any of them"....
I look forward to the Left leaning contributors here complaining about his 'partisan meddling'.
It seems to me that the Lefties have no issues with power as long as it is in the correct hands, and they are in no doubt as to whose hands are the correct ones....
Ed Miliband - good speech. But why is he dressed like he had to go to a funeral before making the speech ? Or does a black suit and tie make him look more serious.
To help win the election, RedEd has just attacked Murdoch and the Mail newspapers again. He also claims that he stood up against the energy companies but forgets to mention his own miserable role in not tackling the companies when he was the Minister in charge.
Equal rights for the self-employed. Against whom? Themselves?
I guess that means you can't stop being self-employed without giving yourself formal notice, a consultation with yourself, the option to move to another job with yourself, and 1 week’s pay for each full year you were 22 or older, but under 41. And woe betide you if you get it wrong, otherwise you might find yourself taking yourself to an industrial tribunal.
Reminds me of the Woody Allen joke where he got a job helping his Dad out, immediately unionized himself and drove his Dad out of business.
Not a fan of schoolchildren voting. He wants the Lords to become a 'Senate of the Nations'. And English devolution.
By which he means no English Parliament or English votes for English laws, but sounds like rubbish local devolution. He still wants a constitutional convention.
Senate of the Nations? Does that mean he wants the same number of seats for England as for Wales and Scotland?
Hmmm.... He is only 20 minutes from here. I feel like I should nip up the road to GMEX with a few eggs. He needs something to drag him back into contact with reality.
Talked about staying in the EU and reforming from within. But failed to mention a single reform he would seek?
Like Cameron then?
Yes, and I've criticised Cameron heavily for that. But at least Cameron has pledged a referendum on EU membership and knows he has to deliver *some* sort of repatriation, however minor or pathetic.
Miliband quite clearly will offer no such vote and do absolutely nothing whatsoever on any repatriation, and isn't even pretending to do so.
I'm not able to watch Ed's speech. Can anyone give a brief summary?
I've been watching it for an over an hour, and I still can't. Tax bad things (tobacco, hedge funds, banks) to pay for the NHS is the biggest thing I gleaned.
I said about a week ago that UKIP had a good chance in Heywood & Middleton, particularly since Clacton already appears to be in the bag for them, which means they can send plenty of activists up to Greater Manchester rather than Essex.
I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a UKIP win in H&M, Andy, but the best UKIP bet by far remains, as it has been for a very long while, that they win at least one seat at the next GE.
Carswell is massive odds on to win Clacton which makes him a very strong favorite to retain the seat in May. Then there's Farage, Eastleigh, and any number of seaside and/or East Anglia constituencies. That's a lot of good prospects running for you.
You can still lay 'None' on Betfair at 1/6. That's a gift.
He forgot we have a deficit, massive debt and there was practically nothing on the economy, except a promise to conjure up many well-paid jobs. And give everyone an owl. [I made up the last bit, alas].
'Labours plan for Britain's future' What is it? After 80 mins of Ed it's still not clear. Tax on fags and bankers to pay for insulation and doctors. Surely there's more?
Yes the self employed will have the right to pay themselves more and sue themselves. Also any johnny foreigner (non-european) hired must have an apprenticeship created for an EC citizen. What could go wrong with that?
@AdelDarwish: it looks like @Ed_Miliband has given up on attracting new voters or middle England, focus only on hard-core #labour ideologists & loony left
@JohnRentoul: Another Labour member texts to say they see more charisma in jacket potato.
As I predicted, Ed is quite deliberately trying to avoid committing to any policy whatsoever. That's actually quite sensible, at least in very short-term electoral terms, as any policy would be bound to alienate part of his support base, who support Labour precisely because they don't want any difficult decisions taken.
Even so, there are ways of saying nothing without making it so obvious.
@IsabelHardman: V.quick: last 2 speeches excellent. This one not, retreating to comfort zone, anecdotes hindered and no sense of challenge that awaits.
The vox-pops with people coming out of the speech are hilarious
Just listened to the interview with the punter who had 900,000 on No in the referendum, having missed the thread completely.
Don't know about anybody else, but he didn't pass the smell test as far as I was concerned. He took 1/4 about an outcome that was as big as 2/5 for a while; he used a Bookie, rather than Betfair, where there was ample liquidity available; he didn't sound or talk like a punter; and he got on for a mega-amount with a firm that regularly knocks back fifty pound punters.
We sure this wasn't just a Hills PR stunt?
Probably, although you would be amazed at how many big punters take worse odds than betfair
Why would anyone, ever take bookie odds when betfair was better?? Mystifying
So how did he get on, Isam?
I can't get 900p on with Hills. Can you?
I can't get anything on the internet or phone, but I'm not banned from all their shops!
I guess if I wrote my name on the bankers draught for 900 large they would clock I was banned and not accept... But you'd just get a mate to put it on wouldn't you?
They'd want to know who and what you were, Isam, no?
I'm afraid the whole 900k story whiffs a bit.
I'm not arguing, just pointing out that a lot of punters don't worry about value, even big staking ones
In all seriousness, I think we will see that come by the time of the GE. The unions want it, polling suggests on the surface it is popular, and the first attempt at some sort of state actors competing in the market sunk, so wouldn't surprise me if we see some sort of re-announcement that involves ability to gerrymander that could lead to nationalisation in they wanted it to.
Makes the unions happy, punters think it sounds good, and you can make it not too scary by fudging it slightly.
It wasn't the worst speech I've heard. But nobody seems to be treating it like a programme for government. Ed didn't really sound like a man with a vision - the 10 year part didn't get going in that respect, although it did allow for some bolder pledges. Nor do the media, who are busy with Iraq, Syria, referendum fallout and so on. It was all rather pedestrian.
In all seriousness, I think we will see that come by the time of the GE. The unions want it, polling suggests on the surface it is popular, and the first attempt at some sort of state actors competing in the market sunk, so wouldn't surprise me if we see some sort of re-announcement that involves ability to gerrymander that could lead to nationalisation in they wanted it to.
Makes the unions happy, punters think it sounds good, and you can make it not too scary by fudging it slightly.
We're seven months off the election. How long are they going to wait?
Mr. Observer, 2011 might've been worse. Can't quite recall how bad that was. It was certainly worse than the last couple.
His delivery initially was dreadful, later on, shouting about everyone dying of plague under the Conservatives and how Labour loves the NHS, it was better.
Comments
As a matter of interest, would it be permissible to make yourself redundant from your own company every year, so as to dodge income tax on the first £30k?
In other news, Man Utd fan found in Kensington.
?????????
The PM is a very lucky man.
Tom Newton Dunn@tnewtondunn·7 mins
Friends: Grauniad editor @arusbridger now tweeting about Obama rather than Ed's #Lab14 speech. Says it all.
Sunder Katwala@sundersays·9 mins
Labour wants 2015 election to be about the NHS. For many Lab supporters, it may be. For more voters: about who is PM, economy & immigration
I'm afraid the whole 900k story whiffs a bit.
Good! Milliband has just dug his political grave by pledging his allegiance to the EU. Does he not heed what the people think?
@UKIP #UKIP
Never mind the PB tories. I'd be looking at your own side if I were you. How long do you give the huge rebellion on English matters and the (England only) mansion tax?
24 hours? 48 hours at a push?
Edited extra bit: er, now the content is no longer available.
People are walking out in boredom of the last leader's speech before an election. 6 so far.
I'm reassured that most British attempts at gerrymandering have been incompetent: see Labour's introduction of postal voting on demand, used mainly by Tory-voting pensioners, as a prime example.
* Caveat - all the other polls give larger leads to Labour in this age group.
"What do we want"....
"No not better jobs, schools, hospitals, society....and end to faux auserity....No, what we want....home insulation on the state"
"when do we want it.... "
"well not that urgently because there has been loads of government schemes and I didn't bother applying for any of them"....
Edited extra bit: now Miliband's doing a bit about how bad 'the other guy' Cameron is.
Labour wants to draw attention to its running of the NHS in Wales....????
This speech has certainly added to my cynicism.
He decided to go to Spain instead.
I think he made the right choice.
Miliband quite clearly will offer no such vote and do absolutely nothing whatsoever on any repatriation, and isn't even pretending to do so.
Attacking the bedroom tax (David Cameron, you've been found out). In the public sector, of course. For private housing Labour doesn't give a damn.
Empty words at empty faces.
@RaheemJKassam he means he stood up when Mr Murdoch Sir walked in'
It was a completely empty speech - with no detail, no policy and no plan. Just empty, empty words.
Unless you make everybody earn the same...
Euurghhhh
What is it? After 80 mins of Ed it's still not clear.
Taxes on fags and bankers to pay for insulation and doctors. And Owls.
Surely there's more?
Did EdM mention the deficit once? Money too tight to mention?
I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a UKIP win in H&M, Andy, but the best UKIP bet by far remains, as it has been for a very long while, that they win at least one seat at the next GE.
Carswell is massive odds on to win Clacton which makes him a very strong favorite to retain the seat in May. Then there's Farage, Eastleigh, and any number of seaside and/or East Anglia constituencies. That's a lot of good prospects running for you.
You can still lay 'None' on Betfair at 1/6. That's a gift.
I know I'm not objective, but I felt it was flat, dull and content light.
I was genuinely worried before the start it would be a barnstormer with one or two new headline grabbing policies.
@JohnRentoul: Another Labour member texts to say they see more charisma in jacket potato.
Do we have confirmation the mansion tax would be imposed on England, but not Scotland? And what about Wales?
On another note, I can't help thinking that Labour needs and deserves a good kicking from UKIP in the Heywood & Middleton by-election.
Even so, there are ways of saying nothing without making it so obvious.
Nice try - but they shouldn't waste money on any soft furnishings
The vox-pops with people coming out of the speech are hilarious
Could well be a Hillbilly ruse
Makes the unions happy, punters think it sounds good, and you can make it not too scary by fudging it slightly.
My word.
This speech, combined with the abject failure of the Labour campaign team in Scotland, shows how unlikely it is that Ed Miliband will lead our nation.
That was not the speech of a leader in waiting. It was a speech of someone with nothing to say. It was empty.
His delivery initially was dreadful, later on, shouting about everyone dying of plague under the Conservatives and how Labour loves the NHS, it was better.
Yes, it's blank.