Poor Ed Miliband — an attempt to make a serious speech on youth unemployment was overshadowed yesterday by his failure to be able to distinguish men from women when he took questions. As ITN labelled it in true tabloid fashion, Ed Miliband’s triple-fail: ‘Is that a man or a woman?’ Here’s the video:

(Available on YouTube here.)

Actually the real shame of Ed’s fluffed lines distracting from his speech is that it distracts from Labour’s latest fluffed policies. Not only is the party re-spending — for the umpteenth time — their bankers’ bonus tax, but their so-called ‘Real Jobs Guarantee’ is a pale imitation of Nick Clegg’s Youth Contract. As Jo Swinson noted:

“Just like with previous job schemes which Labour dreamt up while driving the economy towards a cliff edge, Ed’s plan does not provide jobs that last. As soon as a Government stops paying the full wage, employers would have no incentive to keep someone on. The Youth Contract provides a helping hand with real, private sector jobs and gives young people the skill needed for a lifetime of work through placements, apprenticeships and other additional support. Labour still can’t be trusted with the economy and now they can’t be trusted with helping young people into work either.”

You can see a comparison between the Coalition’s Youth Contract and Labour’s Real Jobs Guarantee here. (Also pasted at the foot of this post.)

Of course, this isn’t the first time Ed’s had problems in and with the media. A couple of weeks ago he found himself under fire from members of the public, including Labour supporters, when he took part in a BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in. You can hear it here:

And who could forget Ed’s classic, These strikes are wrong’ medley from last summer — not the 400,000+ people who’ve watched this YouTube clip:

Coalition Youth Contract compared to Labour’s Real Jobs Guarantee – Mar 2012

* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.