Socialism

As would-be dictators go, Hugo Chavez was on the clownish end of the repressive spectrum. By the end, however, the joke was wearing thin. He was, as Rory Carroll aptly describes him, an "elected autocrat". But if you judge a man by the company he keeps, Chavez's legacy takes a darker turn. In the name of sticking-it-to-the-man (that is, the United States) Chavez chummed himself to most of the world's ghastliest leaders. And, of course, his hero and father-figure was Fidel Castro, governor of the world's sunniest island gulag. Meanwhile, in Britain and Ireland, his death has been mourned by George Galloway (who deems Chavez a "modern day Spartacus"), Ken Livingstone, Gerry Adams and pretty much every other member of the far-left.

Ed Miliband’s day today rather sums up his problems. His morning media round has all been seen through a negative prism. Nick Robinson mocks the new leader’s attempt to talk about the squeezed middle by calling it the squeezed muddle. While Ed Miliband’s declaration that he is a socialist, something he has said many times before, is not being treated as a refreshing dose of intellectual honesty but as evidence that he’s just too left-wing. A lot of Ed Miliabnd’s problems come from the fact that the media is in hunting mode. The media, as a rule, don’t like being surprised and Ed Miliband’s victory was not what it expected. So in return the media are giving him a bit of a kicking. This is, of course, a simplification.