Ed miliband

Friday

Fraser Nelson

Ed Miliband, closet Glee fan?

  What to make of Ed Miliband’s disclosure yesterday that Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ is his favourite song? Ben Brogan smells a rat: “If he's a Journey fan, then I'm a football expert”. But here’s the thing: you don’t have to be a Journey fan to like Don’t Stop Believin’. You just need to be a fan of Glee. For the uninitiated, Glee is an American musical TV series about (impossibly glamorous) nerds in an Ohio high school, who join an after-school music club and are intensely bullied by the cool, sporty kids in the school. But they stick to what they believe in, overcoming the bullies. Don’t Stop Believin’ (here) is the anthem of the series: the first and arguably best Glee cover song.

Thursday

James Forsyth

Rehsuffle rumours

Those now leaving Liverpool are indulging in some shadow Cabinet reshuffle speculation. This chatter has been sparked both by the fact that Miliband has now abolished shadow Cabinet election and by how many of the media rounds in the past few days have been done by members of the 2010 intake notably Stella Creasy, Chuka Umanna and Rachel Reeves. Expect them to be in line for rapid promotion. To make way for them, some of the under-performing members of the shadow Cabinet will have to be sacked. One name touted as being in the frame is John Healey, the health spokesman. Healey has long infuriated some in the leader’s office who think that he spends more time wondering how he could become deputy leader of the party than on how to attack Andrew Lansley.

Alex Massie

A Unionism That Does Not Deserve to Prevail

Regarding Mr Miliband's hapless interview with BBC Scotland David, like James Kirkup, expresses what is the conventional view in London: But, as James Kirkup notes, the Scottish Labour Party is a serious issue. It is the only check on Alex Salmond, which makes it essential to the future of the union. And it’s important for Labour’s electoral recovery, not that you’d realise that listening to the senior party. As I revealed on Sunday, Labour shadow minister Ivan Lewis displayed extraordinary complacency about Scotland at a fringe event, implying that Labour will return to power in Holyrood as a matter of course, no effort required. Miliband’s ignorance only compounds that sense...

James Forsyth

Red flag at half-mast

Labour conference has now closed with the traditional singing of the Red Flag. Ed Miliband appeared to know all the words as he sang along as one wag put it, ‘you don’t grow up in the Miliband household without knowing all the words to the Red Flag.’ But what was really striking about the end of conference was how downbeat it was. As the delegates streamed out of the hall, the atmosphere was palpably flat. Harriet Harman declared in her closing speech that Labour are now done with statements of contrition about their record in office. She told the hall that: ‘…the two Eds both acknowledged – what we all know – that not everything we did in government turned out right.

David Blackburn

Miliband’s revealing Scottish gaffe

Ed Miliband can’t name the candidates for leader of the Scottish Labour Party. Miliband’s discomfort during his excruciating BBC interview is fairly amusing. But, as James Kirkup notes, the Scottish Labour Party is a serious issue. It is the only check on Alex Salmond, which makes it essential to the future of the union. And it’s important for Labour’s electoral recovery, not that you’d realise that listening to the senior party. As I revealed on Sunday, Labour shadow minister Ivan Lewis displayed extraordinary complacency about Scotland at a fringe event, implying that Labour will return to power in Holyrood as a matter of course, no effort required. Miliband’s ignorance only compounds that sense.

Alex Massie

Ed Miliband Comes to Scotland

I suspect it can only be bad news for poor old Tom Harris that he's the only candidate to lead Scottish Labour whose name Ed Miliband can a) remember and b) pronounce correctly: Another reminder that Scotland is already and semi-formally a semi-detached part of the United Kingdom.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Miliband meets the public, and a lot of Labour members

Ed Miliband has just finished an hour and twenty minute long question and answer session. The audience was meant to be a mix of the general public and Labour members, but there seemed to be far more Labour members than anybody else. It would be easy to take the Michael out of the whole event. The questioner who walked out as the Labour leader was trying to answer his question, Miliband’s tendency to stare into the bleachers with his hand above his eyes and the technical glitches. One could also, rightly, say that the vast majority of questions were classic lefty fare. But there was the glimmer of something important here. There were flashes of the humour that comes across in private but not in public. In short, Miliband seemed far more himself than he did yesterday.

Alex Massie

Miliband’s Message: Neoliberalism is Dead. But What Comes Next?

I know one isn't supposed to say this but there was an idea somewhere in the middle of Ed Miliband's confused speech to the Labour party conference. Unfortunately it was smothered by 4000 words of contradictory waffling that, accompanied by Miliband's desperate delivery, made the whole thing almost unbearable. If the Labour leader lacks presence that can't be helped, but nor was he assisted by the tired format of these conference addresses. That is something he could have done something about, so to speak. And the idea was simple: the neoliberal age has ended. He could, even should, have been clearer about this. Had he been so, his speech would have been more coherent and, for that matter, gracious.

James Forsyth

Miliband’s three mistakes

Three things puzzled me about Ed Miliband’s conference speech yesterday. First, I didn’t understand why Miliband did not attack Cameron for having talked about the need for ‘moral capitalism’ and then have not delivered it. It would have been far harder for Miliband’s speech to be caricatured as left wing if he had pointed out that Cameron had promised ‘to place the market within a moral framework - even if that means standing up to companies who make life harder for parents and families’ - and then not delivered on that pledge. The second thing was the absence of any policy at all.

David Blackburn

What Fleet Street made of Miliband’s speech

Ed Miliband has been across the airwaves this morning, explaining that the values outlined in his speech yesterday will inform Labour’s policy direction over the next four years – a statement that calls to mind a crude saying regarding Sherlock Holmes. He is doing this because most commentators agree that his speech was incoherent. Here is a selection of the reaction in this morning: The Times’ leading column (£): ‘Generally he did better with his attacks than with phrases that sought to describe his vision. His larger problem — that people have difficulty seeing him as prime minister — is unlikely to have been affected much by this performance.

Tuesday

Jonathan Jones

Miliband v Clegg: now it’s personal

It's safe to say that Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg don't get on. Even before he was elected leader, Miliband told the New Statesman he would never work with the Lib Dem leader: "Given what he is supporting, I think it is pretty hard to go into coalition with him." He refused to share a platform with Clegg in the AV campaign, and then attacked him in Newcastle with a list of promises he accused the Lib Dems of breaking. All along, the plan has been to turn those who voted Lib Dem in 2010 against Clegg and lure them over to Labour. Whether it's working is hard to tell. In the latest Ipsos MORI poll, 52 per cent of 2010 Lib Dem voters said they were "dissatisfied" with Nick Clegg, but then only 23 per cent are "satisfied" with Ed Miliband.

David Blackburn

Labour turns up the heat on health reform

The exodus from Liverpool has begun, following Ed Miliband’s speech. This means that there will be scant coverage of the events that occur hereafter. Shadow Health Secretary John Healey recognised this and gave an interview to this morning’s Guardian in order to highlight the speech he will make tomorrow. Healey is clear, as Ed Miliband was earlier this afternoon, that the government’s NHS reforms are a costly disaster and betrayal of the British people. Healey adds that they also threaten David Cameron, who has made “promises he is now breaking”. It’s good political posturing on a ‘Home’ issue for Labour.

Fraser Nelson

Miliband VS Predator

You can see what Ed Miliband was trying to do. As his party isn’t trusted on the economy (his number one problem) he had to say how much he admires business. But, then again, his party is bankrolled by unions who dislike capitalists. So, Ed Miliband draws a dividing line: the ‘predator’ companies (bad) and companies like Rolls Royce, for example, and presumably small businesses (good). Here is the new narrative of his leadership: Miliband vs Predator, coming to a cinema near you. But just like Cameron’s ‘runaway dads’, the concept of a predator company is easier to talk about in the abstract than in real life. Just what is a bad company?

David Blackburn

Miliband’s empty promise

Miliband's speech was meant to reach beyond the hall. "I aspire to be your Prime Minister," he told country, "to fulfil the promise of Britain." But, after an hour long speech, it is not wholly clear what the "promise of Britain" is. Miliband offered the hand of partnership to small businesses, the ordinary working family, those who want a cheap further education, working mothers, but it was not clear what they would obtain from the Labour leader. This was a speech virtually bereft of policy direction or a coherent theme. We have a clear idea of what and whom Miliband is against, but very little idea of what he is for. For instance, he declared himself a believer in people but was reluctant to talk about devolving power from the state.

Martin Bright

Why all the apologies, Ed?

The Labour Conference 2011 has turned into a horrible misery-fest. What a daft idea to make the theme of the conference: “We’re really sorry, we won’t do it again”. At least it’s not the slogan, although it would have been more honest than “Fulfilling the Promise of Britain”. I agree with Steve Richards in the Independent that the pessimism is self-fulfilling. This does not feel like a platform for re-election I spent most of the New Labour era criticising Tony Blair and his government. I thought he was too cosy with the ultra-rich, cynical about criminal justice policy, disingenuous about the use of the private sector in providing public services and over-cautious about redistribution.

Jonathan Jones

How’s Miliband doing?

In a word: badly. Ed Miliband has now led Labour for a full year, but has made no progress with regards to its standings in the polls. When he took over, the Labour party was at 37 per cent in the polls, according to Ipsos MORI. Considering that 60 per cent give the Coalition government the thumbs down, he's had ample opportunity to improve this figure. And yet he's failed. In their latest poll, MORI again have Labour on 37 per cent.   When it comes to his own personal ratings, the picture is even worse. As Miliband has become more well-known and more people have formed an opinion of him, the number "satisfied" with his performance has actually decreased. This month, it hit its lowest point to date at 31 per cent.

Fraser Nelson

Labour won’t look on the bright side

Walking around the Labour conference and its fringes, it sometimes feels like the party suffered not just a defeat but a lobotomy. There are no great arguments about the future of socialism, the uses and limits of the market etc. There is no spark, no protest, not even dissent. No debate, no tension. That's not to say there aren't any clever people: Ed Miliband has some real brainboxes behind him and some of his ideas show the result of hard thinking. There are plenty of bright young Labour things, and  it will be a party worth listening to when the 2010 intake starts to ascend the ranks. But now? Last night's receptions felt more like a wake than a rally. Jurassic union leaders roam around with a proprietorial air.

David Blackburn

Ed’s “something for something” society

Fraser’s already commented on the welfare angle of Ed Miliband’s keynote speech to the Labour party; the welfare proposals are part of a broad analytical sweep that can be reduced to the catchphrase, ‘the something for something society’. Miliband’s vision of society will reward those who work and abide by the rules at the expense of those who do not – those who loot, who fiddle expenses, those who pursue short-termism in business. According to the Guardian, he will also emphasise the importance of social mobility and equality. To that end, he will encourage universities to take more people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Monday

Fraser Nelson

Miliband woos the strivers

Finally, a good idea from the Labour conference. In his speech tomorrow, Ed Miliband will say he'd give workers priority over the jobless for social housing. This is the dividing line he was reluctant to draw when asked to by Andrew Marr on Sunday. It's a clever move, and one that recognises the resentment felt by the strivers against the welfare dependent. He will say: "The hard truth is that we still have a system where reward for work is not high enough, where benefits are too easy to come by for those who abuse the system." So councils dolling out housing should not only take need into account, but whether applicants "are working, whether they look after the property and are good neighbours." I can't see why IDS would oppose this, and perhaps consensus can be reached.