Tag Archives: ed miliband

Stephen Tall

Pollwatch – State of the Leaders: Clegg -25%, Cameron -6%, Miliband -10% (April 2011)

By Stephen Tall | Tue 5th April 2011 - 8:00 am

Yesterday, Pollwatch looked at the current state of the parties; today it’s the turn of the party leaders, Messrs Clegg, Cameron and Miliband.

As with all polls, what follows comes with caveats. Five of the polling companies – YouGov, Ipsos-Mori, ComRes, ICM and Angus Reid – ask questions specifically to find out the public’s views of the party leaders. And each asks variants on the basic question – do you think Clegg/Cameron are doing a good job – to come up with their figures, so comparison ain’t easy. For that reason, I’m taking a 3-month rolling average which isn’t very statistically …

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Posted in Polls | Also tagged , and | 8 Comments
Jeremy Browne MP

Jeremy Browne writes… Britain can’t afford to avoid radical change

By Jeremy Browne MP | Tue 22nd March 2011 - 10:23 am

‘One of the things the RSPB are calling on you today to do is to not cut funding for nature conservation. Can you promise that despite the 30% cuts to your department, you won’t cut nature conservation costs?’

In a typical week earlier this month, the Radio 4 Today programme, having set itself against police reforms the previous day, had just found yet another deficit denial frontier. And it was only Wednesday.

Labour official spokespeople are the same: Exhibit A, DCMS Shadow Minister Gloria De Piero writing on why we should not reduce the arts budget in Total Politics magazine last month:

‘It

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 45 Comments
Helen Duffett

Tim Farron’s speech at the Lib Dems’ YES! to Fairer Votes campaign launch

By Helen Duffett | Fri 18th March 2011 - 12:00 pm

Party President Tim Farron has this morning launched the Liberal Democrats’ YES! to Fairer Votes campaign in Manchester.

Along with Floella Benjamin, Simon Hughes MP, John Leech MP, Gordon Birtwistle MP and Liberal Youth’s Sarah Harding, Tim spoke of the importance of winning the referendum, calling it “a momentous opportunity” and welcoming Labour leader Ed Miliband to the Yes campaign.

Here’s Tim’s speech in full:

We have a medieval voting system that has failed. It’s failed to give most people the MP they voted for, its failed to hold MPs to account, its failed even to do the one thing it was

…

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Mark Pack

Economic statistic of the week: 0.3%

By Mark Pack | Fri 18th March 2011 - 8:55 am

It’s been a common political refrain: Labour planned massive cuts in public spending, Labour lost the election and but then Labour campaign repeatedly against cuts without ever saying what it would have cut.

We’ve never been told how Labour would have cut that £44 billion it was planning on. Nor have we heard why Labour think the government is an extreme right-wing baby-eating one even though after all the cuts the level of public spending will still be higher than it was for seven years under Labour.

But with the Budget round the corner, Labour has broken its silence …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 30 Comments
Mark Pack

Lord Falconer, wrong again

By Mark Pack | Thu 17th March 2011 - 6:42 pm

Having failed to derail the AV referendum with his highly implausible legal arguments, Labour peer Lord Falconer (who served in the previous Labour government, and was one of those who put the pressure on to have the Iraq war ruled legal) is at it again. This time he is trying to argue that people should vote No to AV because it will bring down the Coalition government and hasten Ed Miliband into 10 Downing Street without having to wait for any general election.

Except that it won’t.

Lord Falconer is right in as much as the Coalition’s program of …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

Charles Kennedy to join Ed Miliband on a pro-electoral reform platform

By Mark Pack | Thu 17th March 2011 - 8:55 am

It’s hardly surprising that Charles Kennedy and Ed Miliband would be appearing together to promote electoral reform. Kennedy has long been a supporter of electoral reform and by virtue of not being in government is seen by many in Labour as an easier figure to campaign alongside (even though one of Kennedy’s first acts on becoming party leader was to end the party’s then work in government with Labour). Ed Milband in turn is the author of Labour’s general election manifesto which not only pledged a referendum but also called for a change in the electoral system to follow from …

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Stephen Tall

Three cheers for Ed Miliband (shame about his party)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 16th March 2011 - 6:40 pm

This evening Labour leader Ed Miliband will urge his party and the public to say yes to fairer votes in this coming May’s referendum.

All of us in favour of electoral reform, and a voting system that puts more power back in the hands of the people, should welcome his personal backing for the alternative vote. Ed, at least, is staying true to what Labour’s 2010 general election manifesto pledged, specifically:

To ensure that every MP is supported by the majority of their constituents voting at each election, we will hold a referendum on introducing the Alternative Vote for elections

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 30 Comments
Chris Rennard

Chris Rennard writes… So what was all the fuss in Parliament about?

By Chris Rennard | Sun 20th February 2011 - 9:25 am

Late on Wednesday night Nick Clegg was at the back of the House of Lords to see Royal Assent granted to the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill.

His presence there emphasised his achievement in getting this Bill through Parliament in time to enable the referendum on switching to the Alternative Vote to take place on May 5th.

Of course people may not vote to change from First Past the Post. But I have never thought that any measure of electoral reform for Westminster would come about without a referendum. The self-preservation instincts of many MPs means that they are never …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

Clegg and Miliband both campaign for a Yes vote in referendum

By Mark Pack | Fri 18th February 2011 - 12:05 pm

With May’s AV referendum finally passed by Parliament this week, both Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg have been taking to the public stage to argue for a Yes vote.

Nick Clegg’s speech today majors on how the alternative vote will hold politicians better to account:

Under the Alternative Vote, politicians will need to aim to get half of their constituents to choose them. That means they will have to work harder to appeal to more people than before. It means they will have to reach out to people who were ignored under First Past the Post. It means they will no longer

…

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Mark Pack

Eight former Liberal Democrat candidates take part in Labour’s policy-making process

By Mark Pack | Sat 12th February 2011 - 11:25 am

On Friday former Liberal Democrat policy director and Parliamentary candidate Richard Grayson announced more details of his response to Ed Miliband’s invitation to encourage Lib Dems to take part in Labour’s policy review. The details came in the form of an article due to be published in Liberator:

I saw that invitation as part of an effort to move Labour away from the tribalism which has been such a feature of its past. I have long been committed to pluralism and have a history of working with people from other parties. I have done that for some time through Compass, and

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 47 Comments
The Voice

Ed Miliband’s Director of Strategy tells MPs: lay off Rupert Murdoch

By The Voice | Wed 2nd February 2011 - 6:40 pm

Via the New Statesman website:

An email, forwarded on behalf of Ed Miliband’s director of strategy, Tom Baldwin, to all shadow cabinet teams warns Labour spokespeople to avoid linking hacking with the BSkyB bid, to accept ministerial assurances that meetings with Rupert Murdoch are not influencing that process, and to ensure that complaints about tapping are made in a personal, not shadow ministerial, capacity…

It goes on: “Downing Street says that Cameron’s dinners with Murdoch will not affect Hunt’s judgement. We have to take them at their word.” …

The guidance concludes with the warning, “We must guard against anything which appears

…

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Mark Pack

The AV referendum: state of play

By Mark Pack | Wed 2nd February 2011 - 8:55 am

With attention understandably focusing on events in the Lords, the actual progress of the campaigns for the electoral reform referendum has had less coverage in the last few weeks. So here’s a quick score-card:

  • Funding: the No campaign has taken to the media to protest about “big money” funding the Yes campaign. Even as reported by the Telegraph the attacks are pretty thin going, but revealing in one respect. Many expected the No campaign to be well-funded by the sort of large donors who have heavily funded the Tories in the past (not to mention, possibly, trade union funding). However,

…

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Miliband goes all Ballsy

By Paul Walter | Wed 26th January 2011 - 7:41 pm

Good Lord! Ed Miliband and David Cameron actually agreed on something. They agreed that yesterday’s growth figures were “disappointing”. They even agreed that if you set aside the bad weather impact, the figures were flat over the last quarter. An amazing level of agreement at PMQs! Unheard of!

Miliband asked about the causes of the disappointing figures. Cameron pointed to the UK’s large deficit and the large banking boom and bust. Ed Miliband then asked Cameron to confirm that he still thinks we are “out of the danger zone” (Cameron’s words from 15th December). We are no longer linked with PIG (Portugal, Ireland, Greece), said Cameron.

After Cameron said “If you do not deal with your debts, you will never have growth”, Ed Miliband came back with “If you do not have growth, you will never cut the deficit.” That has to be his best rejoinder ever at PMQs. Cameron dealt with that, however, by quoting the head of the OECD: “if you don’t deal with the deficit you can be assured that there will not be growth because confidence will not recover”.

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Mark Pack

Compromise and conflict in the air in Lords stand-off over filibustering

By Mark Pack | Tue 25th January 2011 - 12:02 am

There’s a finely balanced stand-off in the Lords over the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill. Many Labour peers feel they are just a few days of filibustering away from achieving, for them, a major political objective – forcing the government to change the date of the AV referendum – and, or perhaps instead, forcing major changes to the Bill, such as a change in the new rules for drawing up Parliamentary constituencies.

However they also face a major risk of the delaying tactics going wrong. Over-play their hand, annoy the cross-bench peers and spur the government into action and the …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 21 Comments
Stephen Tall

Labour reshuffle: Ed Miliband unveils Continuity Gordon Brown Party

By Stephen Tall | Thu 20th January 2011 - 8:32 pm

The Lib Dem response to Ed Balls’ appointment as Labour’s shadow chancellor, replacing Alan Johnson, has been swift. Stephen Williams, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Treasury Committee, commented:

“I wish Alan Johnson good luck for the future.

“The decision to appoint Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor shows that the Labour Party is now determined to carry on with the Gordon Brown economic plan that caused so much trouble for this country.

“Ed Balls isn’t just a deficit denier, he’s a deficit enthusiast.”

Alan Johnson resigned earlier today, citing “personal reasons to do with my family”. He had been under pressure in …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 36 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: David Laws on the government’s economic policies

By NewsHound | Wed 19th January 2011 - 10:43 pm

Over in The Guardian, David Laws yesterday has this piece:

Of all the challenges which confront the coalition in 2011, none is more important than the economy. This is also the issue where the biggest political dividing lines are drawn. Ed Miliband is betting that economic recovery will be derailed, and while trying to reconcile many divergent views in his party, he has generally taken the position that cuts should be delayed and that high tax rates (including the 50% tax rate) should be retained. Ed is getting all the big economic decisions wrong, and leading his party into an economic

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 19 Comments
Sara Bedford

Labour bullies journalists to follow party spin

By Sara Bedford | Tue 18th January 2011 - 2:30 pm

Last month, Ed Miliband banned his MPs from using the word “coalition” to describe the government, hoping that the phrase “Conservative-led government” would diminish the role of the Liberal Democrats within the coalition and help to tease away Lib Dem voters.

Now it seems Labour would like to see journalists whipped into line. According to Joe Murphy at the Evening Standard, Miliband’s newly-appointed Director of Strategy and Communications Tom Baldwin instructed the BBC, ITV and Sky that they should stop using the word “coalition” and use the phrase “Tory-led government” instead.

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 46 Comments
Mark Pack

Why does Alan Johnson want the government to have a plan for something Ed Miliband says isn’t going to happen?

By Mark Pack | Mon 17th January 2011 - 8:46 pm

At the weekend, there was a flurry of activity online (such as here) following Ed Miliband’s interview on the Andrew Marr show where he denied having said that the government’s policies would cause a double-dip recession and various people pointed out how this was contradicted by his own website (and also, though less noticed, by the Labour Party website too).

If you look at the dates of who said what, there seems to be a fairly straight-forward explanation: Ed Miliband and others in Labour were expecting (or at least willing to talk in public as if they were expecting) …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 23 Comments
Neal Lawson

The Independent View: Confusing, exciting and terrifying times for those on the liberal left

By Neal Lawson | Mon 17th January 2011 - 11:25 am

These are confusing, exciting and terrifying times for those on the liberal left. By the liberal left I mean those of us who want to see people flourish, to make the world as they see fit – to do it individually but also collectively and therefore democratically and all that requires in terms of greater equality of power and resources.

The confusion is that few of us saw the Conservative-dominated Coalition coming and even fewer are aware yet of its effect on each party and British politics. But it will be profound.

Looking back I find it incredible that my Party, Labour, …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged and | 98 Comments
The Voice

Clegg points to “clear liberal direction” of government, as Lib Dems highlight Labour’s economic woes

By The Voice | Mon 10th January 2011 - 8:27 pm

Nick Clegg used a prime-time slot on this morning’s Today Programme to make clear his view that the public will take a “more rounded view” of the Lib Dems’ achievements in government by the next election. As BBC News reports:

said the effect of the spending cuts would be “difficult”, adding: “But I think at the same time there are signs that the repair job we are doing on the government finances and the general creation of greater confidence in the economy might also start showing itself as well.

“I think it will be a crucial year – a crucial year, yes, of some very challenging circumstances for millions of people in this country, but I hope the beginning of a real turnaround as we move forward and as we successfully implement the repair job on the economy.” …

Asked whether the Lib Dems had been unsuccessful in implementing their manifesto commitments since forming the coalition, he replied that they had gone into the arrangement with the Conservatives “with our eyes wide open”. He said policies such as electoral reform, raising the point at which people pay basic-rate income tax and introducing a “pupil premium” to help children from the worst-off families had been largely due to his party’s efforts. Mr Clegg added: “I think this shows a clear liberal direction to this government, on the whole.”

He said: “These are the big benefits in British life which I acknowledge in a sense don’t present themselves immediately to people. Over the course of this parliament I believe people will take a more rounded view of what this government is doing.”

You can listen to a brief excerpt from Nick’s interview here:

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David Boyle

Opinion: The next big idea – humanity

By David Boyle | Mon 10th January 2011 - 10:25 am

The cacophony from Facebook, the blogosphere and all the rest of the Twitterati sometimes drives out what is most significant.  But every so often someone writes something that you know is important for the future.

Neal Lawson is an indefinable character.  His Compass campaign group is a fountain of new ideas designed to revitalise the Labour Party.  He is no friend of the Liberal Democrats, but neither is an enemy or party to the destructive game of name-calling and innuendo that characterises the Labour campaign in Oldham East and Saddleworth.

I also believe his article in the Guardian, with a slightly …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 12 Comments
Richard Clare

Opinion: One good reason to vote Lib Dem

By Richard Clare | Sun 9th January 2011 - 12:50 pm

With the looming by-election in Oldham East & Saddleworth and each candidate eager to win, with each of their respective parties hoping to be able to boast about the win for years to come, I’d imagine the people of OE&S are probably scratching their heads. A Labour party that endorsed the Phil Woolas who combined pretty much everything we hate about politicians in his lies intended to stir racial tensions? A Liberal Democrat party that, let’s be honest, is not the most glamorous of groups at the moment, still reeling from scandals and broken pledges? A Conservative party barely even …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged , and | 49 Comments
Stephen Tall

The 100-plus Labour MPs publicly opposing electoral reform

By Stephen Tall | Thu 30th December 2010 - 7:45 pm

Poor Ed Miliband. In his first speech to the Labour party conference he tried his valiant best to show that Labour had changed, that it was a party which could re-claim the progressive liberalism it so happily junked in the Blair/Brown years.

No more ID cards, detention without trial, control orders etc — so said Ed. And yes to electoral reform in the shape of the alternative vote — so said Ed.

Unfortunately for Ed, not many of his MPs are listening to him. Today, the No2AV campaign proudly announced that over 100 of Labour’s 257 MPs would be opposing …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 57 Comments
Mark Pack

A trio of good news on political reform

By Mark Pack | Tue 28th December 2010 - 9:47 am

First, fuelled in part by Labour’s debate about how it should be seen relative to the trade unions, we have the news that Ed Miliband may be about to break the logjam on party funding reform:

Ed Miliband is to distance Labour from its trade union paymasters by diluting the party’s financial dependence on them and reducing their role in electing the party leader.

Labour has proposed introducing a ceiling on donations to any political party which could be as low as £500, The Independent has learnt.

The move could break the long-running deadlock between the parties on agreeing a new system of

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 15 Comments
George Kendall

Opinion: what Ed Miliband should put on his blank sheet of paper – part 2

By George Kendall | Wed 22nd December 2010 - 9:10 am

Ed Miliband has invited Lib Dems to make suggestions for his 2015 manifesto. Though I’m suspicious of his motives, and I’m a supporter of Nick Clegg and the coalition, I think we should respond to this invitation with a public discussion of what Liberal Democrat policies should be from 2015.

If he takes up the suggestions, so much the better. If not, public discussion of Liberal Democrat ideas is always a good idea.

In part 1, I’ve already made suggestions on the economy, the deficit, and on local government finance. Part 2 covers other policy areas.

Reducing the poverty trap

Income tax is …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 16 Comments
George Kendall

Opinion: what Ed Miliband should put on his blank sheet of paper – part 1

By George Kendall | Tue 21st December 2010 - 9:15 am

Ed Miliband has invited Lib Dems to make suggestions for his 2015 manifesto. In doing so, he is treading a well-worn path: from Tony Blair, who borrowed Alan Beith’s proposal for an independent Bank of England and a chunk of our policy on constitutional reform, to David Cameron, who borrowed a lot of our policy on civil liberties.

Imitation is a form of flattery, but it isn’t always sincere. I believe Ed Miliband spoke from the heart in his campaign for the Labour leadership, when he said that he would like to make us extinct. I’ve no doubt he would like …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 11 Comments
Richard Kemp

Opinion: Planet Earth to Grayson

By Richard Kemp | Tue 14th December 2010 - 10:11 am

Oh Dear, oh dear. I have just read Richard Grayson’s Observer article and to say it is lacking in reflection and analysis is an understatement.

I touched on this on my own blog site yesterday but perhaps I could expand a little.

Ed Milliband was a supporter then a member of a highly illiberal government. Let’s not forget how bad the Labour Government was when it:

  • Entered into an illegal war in Iraq
  • Allowed the banking crisis to fester in spite of warnings
  • Developed expensive bureaucracies to deal with problems
  • Allowed the social housing stock to decrease by 37,500 in their time in government
  • Attacked

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 62 Comments
Helen Duffett

Tim Farron: Why would any sane progressive give Labour a second glance?

By Helen Duffett | Mon 13th December 2010 - 5:09 pm

Today Labour leader Ed Miliband made a pitch for disaffected Lib Dem members at his first monthly press conference as Leader of the Opposition, saying,

…Today I want to make an offer to Liberal Democrats: To those who are reluctant to abandon ship, but are concerned at the direction of their party, I invite them to work with us on issues of common interest.

Commenting on Mr Miliband’s ‘offer’ of policy input, Liberal Democrat President-elect Tim Farron said:

Labour have just spent 13 years sucking up to Rupert Murdoch and George Bush – why would any sane progressive even give them

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 62 Comments
Mark Pack

Fairer votes referendum: it needs to be about the voting system, not the government

By Mark Pack | Thu 9th December 2010 - 12:54 pm

Contrasting poll results from YouGov and ICM on the AV referendum show how important it is avoid the referendum becoming a vote for or against the government rather than about the merits of the alternative vote compared to first past the post.

An ICM poll has found the Yes camp leading by 35% – 22% (with the balance don’t know or wouldn’t vote), which compares to a 35% – 41% deficit on the latest YouGov poll.

However, there is an important difference between the wording of the two polling questions, with YouGov’s question starting, “The Conservative-Liberal Democrat government are committed …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 24 Comments
Paul Walter

Opinion: A new direction for the centre-left

By Paul Walter | Sat 4th December 2010 - 1:27 pm

Compass director Neal Lawson and the Guardian’s John Harris have written a very thoughtful and forward-looking article for the New Statesman. It proposes a new direction for the centre left, which they call “New Socialism”.

The authors start from the premise that the Labour party suffered a stunning defeat in May. Currently, they say, the party is “sleepwalking from the car crash”. Old Labour ran out of steam. New Labour ran itself into the sand. Now, however, “the party seems to have switched off”, while “social democracy” dies throughout the world. Labour has “almost forgotten how to think, or even …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 21 Comments
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