Poor Ed Miliband. The Labour leader would have been hoping public attention today would be focused on his his party’s defence of its Inverclyde stronghold — instead, everyone’s watching his car-crash TV interview in which he reformulates a soundbite repeatedly in order to insert the words ‘negotiating table’ and ‘these strikes are wrong’ into every sentence.
The result? A distinctly odd, unnatural, automated interview which fuels the ‘Awkward Ed’ media meme.
Part of me feels a little sorry for Mr Miliband. Clearly he was under the impression that only one line would be extracted from the interview; not unreasonably he was keen to ensure that it was the line which conveyed his key message rather than the news editor’s. Such is the challenge for all politicians in our ‘say it in 7 seconds’ media culture. But, as Iain Duncan Smith found to his cost as Tory leader when he nervously chuckled his way through a Radio 4 Today Programme interview, it’s these kinds of moments which stand out in the public consciousness.
Anyway, enough analysing: just sit back and enjoy.
(Also available on the BBC here.)
If you like, you might want to re-watch and play along at home to Mark Pack’s Ed Miliband interview chocolate/drinking game.
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8 Comments
Wonderful. I definitely see the potential for an Ed Milliband Action Man, complete with draw string and voice function.
He looks kind of… drunk.
Like Michael Foot he’s a decent and honourable man in a job that he is not suited for.
I think you’ll find that like Michael Foot he’s an uncharismatic and forgettable man in a job he is not suited for.
Foot was a titan who had a career outwith politics and Westminster some five decades before he became Leader, as well as a true polymath.
Miliminor is, well, not.
Strange enough, I have not heard a single person today even mention it. Must be a Westminster thing. Hows the whip round for the deposit going in Scotland 🙂
That’s what comes of taking media lessons from George Osborne. I imagine LDV had an article about that performance as well.
“I think you’ll find that like Michael Foot he’s an uncharismatic and forgettable man.”
There must be two Michael Foots then!