Does he need more than cliches if Labour is to retain its lead? In what’s been billed as a big speech setting out how Labour will move forward the party leader, Ed Miliband, has talked about a “national mission” to regain the trust of the voters. He talked about the need to set out a clear and positive vision for the future which touched the concerns of voters. He also touched on a theme that he’s raised before – that…
Is this the most important of the 4 battle-grounds? There are four distinct contests on May 5th but only one which will provide real pointers as to the scale of the Labour recovery – the English local elections. A good result in Wales looks like a banker but the Ed Miliband-backed YES2AV campaign looks doomed and the latest polling suggest that the red team’s hopes of coming out top in Scotland might have been thwarted. It was in England on…
Why would Vince give up his cabinet job? Channel 4 news is making a splash tonight over comments made on a train by Ed Miliband in which the Labour leader appealed to Cable and other LDs to join Labour. The fact that this appeal has been made publicly means that there’s nothing in it. Genuine defections come about after secret talks and the first thing you hear is that the move has been made. In any case what’s in it…
Will Cameron’s insult help his chances? Yesterday’s PMQ encounter between David Cameron and Ed Balls has continued to reverberate and I wonder whether it could have a long-term impact. For Cameron’s comments about Balls being ” the most annoying” is a tag that looks as though it will stick but I don’t think it will harm Balls – rather the reverse in fact. He, yet again, showed himself to be the most robust attacker of the Tories and the coalition…
When are all sides going to move on from Maggie? Ed Miliband had a difficult hand to play on Saturday. The thrust of most of the hundreds of thousands who joined the TUC protest was that all cuts were wrong and should be opposed. As Andrew Ranwsley observed in the Observer this is “..not a position the Labour leader can afford to be associated with and not the position he has taken. He tried to finesse his dilemma by addressing…
Does the new form sound more prime ministerial? The news that apparently the Labour leader wants to be known as Edward Miliband in future has been treated with widespread guffaws – as you’d expect. No doubt we’ll see all sorts of pop psychology in the media over the next twenty four hours as so called “experts” pronounce on his motivation and whether it will have an impact. This, together with the reports that he’s planning to marry his long-standing partner…
Will getting married be a positive or a negative? If the above Tweet from EyeSpyMP is correct then Ed Miliband will soon be a married man. This had been an event on which there had been betting so some punters look set to be better off. The problem for EdM is that given he has been in the relationship for many years and had children without being married then why’s he decided to do something about it now? It will…
Doesn’t EdM need to plan better? On the face of it this should have been an easy PMQs for Ed Miliband. The government’s performance over the past week or so has been far from opitimal and there was plenty of material to play with over the Libya issues and the role of William Hague. Yet somehow EdM’s attacks failed to stick and it was Cameron who came on top. Anticipating the vulnerability of Hague the PM had a well prepared…