Browsed by
Category: Ed Miliband

Will Dave go on getting easy rides over U-turns?

Will Dave go on getting easy rides over U-turns?

Comments 0 Comment

Surely Ed should be nailing the PM on these? Those who watched the Daily Politics programme ahead of today’s PMQs will have seen the feature and discussion on government policy U-turns. From forests to free milk for children and today the NHS and the planned penal changes the list is getting quite long. The way this was presented in the programme showed the scale of the case that can be made against the Prime minister. The Tory minister, Grant Shapps,…

Read More Read More

What’s Miliband(E) going to make of the Montgomerie Tweet?

What’s Miliband(E) going to make of the Montgomerie Tweet?

Comments 0 Comment

Should it be a great PMQ opportunity for the Labour leader? There’s just about nothing that leaders’ of the opposition like more than what appears to be a U-turn in government policy, particularly when that has, apparently, been driven by the PM over-ruling, in effect, one of his cabinet. Today there is PMQs and the NHS changes and the position of Andrew Lansley will surely be part of EdM’s planned line of questioning. On top of that there are the…

Read More Read More

Is Jon Huntsman getting his big ideas from EdM?

Is Jon Huntsman getting his big ideas from EdM?

Comments 0 Comment

This was Ed Miliband on BBC Breakfast on May 5th 2011 “The central mission of my Government will be to ensure that we get the next generation to have better chances than the last, because that is under threat in this country and unless we make that the focus – unless we make that the mission of the Government – I fear the situation will get worse.” This was Jon Huntsman, third in the betting for the GOP nomination, in…

Read More Read More

Can Labour win without David Miliband?

Can Labour win without David Miliband?

Comments 0 Comment

The Henry G weekly column Labour has to do a hell of lot of work to get in fighting shape for contention at the next election. I’ll look at some of these issues in future columns. However it struck me straight after Ed Miliband’s election as Labour leader there were three seemingly ‘superficial’ things that had to be corrected before he really got a proper look-in at becoming Prime Minister. I know this makes me sound old-fashioned but the first…

Read More Read More

How Ed Miliband compares with previous opposition leaders

How Ed Miliband compares with previous opposition leaders

Comments 0 Comment

Will Labour find cold comfort in the IDS comparison? The Ipsos-MORI data on Ed Miliband is getting a lot of coverage today and I thought that this chart puts the “ready to be PM” responses into an historical context. It shows the trend with all opposition leaders from Tony Blair onwards and, interestingly the man who was to lead Labour to three election victories had a positive rating of 59 to 28 six months after he took over the job….

Read More Read More

How critical is the leader to Labour’s election chances?

How critical is the leader to Labour’s election chances?

Comments 0 Comment

Is there a lesson to be learned from Scotland? My biggest betting wins of 2011 were against the SNP taking most seats in the Scottish Parliament election earlier in the month. I started piling on towards the end of March when I became convinced that the leaderships ratings of Alex Salmond and Iain Grey were a far better pointer to the outcome than the voting intention polls. At the time Labour was in the lead in almost all the polls…

Read More Read More

Why didn’t David Miliband complain about this?

Why didn’t David Miliband complain about this?

Comments 0 Comment

Should the votes involved have been disqualified? The other day I was having a conversation with a Labour figure who was furious about the manner of Ed Miliband’s election as Labour leader on September 25th last year. It will be recalled that David Miliband had clear margins amongst the party members and the party’s MPs/MEPs. The elder brother was also ahead in most of the affiliated organisations apart from in a small group of very large unions where voting papers…

Read More Read More

If Ken loses will it be Ed’s neck on the chopping block?

If Ken loses will it be Ed’s neck on the chopping block?

Comments 0 Comment

HenryG on the challenges facing the Labour leader A significant article has just been published on the Tribune website – the journal of Labour’s heart and with longstanding union ties. It accurately sums up the frustrations many of us who supported Ed Miliband for Labour leadership have. It correctly identifies the importance of the London mayoral election and the growing unease at a tactical lack of unity behind Ken Livingstone’s campaign. It is my firm view that if Ken loses…

Read More Read More