Miliband is a scared man leading a scared party

[Hopeless Romantic]

The Labour leader’s latest speech was easily the weakest he has delivered.

There was an interesting line in Ed Miliband's speech to Saturday's Progress conference. Analysing the reason for Labour's defeat in the May general election, he said:

Our message, too weighted to fear over hope, stopped the Tories getting a majority. But it was never enough for Labour to win. Because we did not own the future.

I suspect that, when Labour's leader finally hands over to his successor, that may well prove to be his own epitaph.

Miliband is a scared man in charge of a scared party. His latest attempt to set out his political vision, easily the weakest speech he's delivered since he took over from Gordon Brown, cruelly highlighted that fact. The caveats, juxtapositions and abstractions, which have in the past been scattered through his addresses, became so numerous that they created a textual landfill.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/dan-hodges/2011/05/labour-miliband-speech-party

[non sociopath skin]

1. With respect, I'm beginning to wonder what your agenda is, HR.

The media from which you're selecting your knocking copy have had far more positives about Miliband and the Labour Party which you presumably weren't moved to share with us.

Perhaps you'd care to enlighten me?

The Skin

[Hopeless Romantic]

3. I just think the Labour Party is going nowhere

This forum seems to be mostly focussed on bashing the Tories (no problem with that), the Lib Dems and the cuts, than looking at the real problem for the left which the continuing unelectability of the Labour Party and in particular Ed Miliband.

Not that I can see anyone else who would be more electable in the Labour Party at the moment.

[LeftishBrit]

6. I disagree about their 'unelectability'

The most recent YouGov poll that I could find had Labour at 42, Tories at 37, LibDems at 9. Hardly 'unelectable'.

The results in Scotland and Wales are not really indicative of Labour's electability IMO. First of all, people often vote on different issues (as well as fewer people voting at all) in local than general elections; secondly, I think that the Nationalist parties would back Labour rather than Tories if push came to shove and there was a Labour minority government or one with a small majority.

Mind you, I am more an anti-Tory voter than a Labour loyalist, and under Blair would not even have called myself Labour. I have voted for three parties in my time. For obvious reasons, I can no longer vote LibDem to be anti-Tory; the Greens are not strong enough at present to be real opponents to the Tories; so that leaves Labour. But I am happier to vote for Miliband than for Blair or even Brown, and with him as leader feel more 'Labour' than at any time since John Smith died. However, if Labour move to the Right and stop opposing the cuts, I could (as under Blair) no longer support them. What is the point of a Labour government that acts like the Tories?

[Nihil]

9. But that in itself is not a good sign ...

> The results in Scotland and Wales are not really indicative
> of Labour's electability IMO.

Whilst I agree with you that people do tend to vote differently between
local and general elections, it was only the Scottish and Welsh results
that provided Labour governments in the past: England has been mainly
Tory with a growing trend (now destroyed) to Lib Dem but without the
Scottish & Welsh Labour MPs, there would have been no Labour majority
in the last three decades (at least).

Hence, those results *do* show a worrying indication for Labour.

:shrug:

[non sociopath skin]

7. I've lived with a Neocon "Labour Party" for the best part of 20 years ...

... and what a disaster it was.

If Labour ever went back to being even vaguely centre-left, this was what it was going to feel like.

The bulk of the media hate it. The electorate is broadly favourable.

Deal with it.

The Skin

[LeftishBrit]

2. I rather like Ed Miliband

Not perfect, not as experienced or tough as would perhaps be ideal, but a decent man with decent policies.

And what would be the alternatives? I like Ed Balls, but many people hate him. Brother David may be more experienced, but is also blander and more associated with Blairism. Jon Cruddas hasn't a chance in hell of the leadership; nor does Diane Abbott, or for that matter 'Andy Who?' Burnham.

IMO, it's great to thresh out policies,, but yet more party infighting about the leadership, without a concrete alternative, is just a gift to Cameron et al. If there had been less sniping at Gordon Brown, just for sniping's sake a lot of the time, at a crucial stage, maybe we'd now have a Labour government - a minority government probably, but at least not Axeman Cameron.

[Hopeless Romantic]

4. Agreed. I can't see any senior Labour figure who inspires at the moment

[ikri]

5. Seems to be a campaign against him

I've not seen or heard him say anything that I'd not expect at this point in a parliament from an opposition leader and that quote Our message, too weighted to fear over hope, stopped the Tories getting a majority. But it was never enough for Labour to win. Because we did not own the future. is spot on, though I've no doubt about why some New Labour old guard missed the fucking point. Elections are usually lost by those in power and only very very rarely won by the opposition. Labour's best actions at this point are to wait as the TorLibans each fuck up in more and more spectacular ways and start to take advantage.

Labour cannot move too quickly to condemn what the government is currently doing since New Labour had similar policies, or would have followed similar policies if they had been re-elected. They need to distance themselves from the tainted New Labour brand which is, I suspect, where this shitty whispering campaign is coming from - New Labourites who are now no longer in favour with the party or the country as a whole but are just as willing as the Lib Dems to ditch anything resembling an ideal in order to regain the Power that they enjoyed so much and squandered so poorly.

The country doesn't need another centre-right party as I have seen suggested by someone today (Ed Miliband needs to embrace Labour's lost Tories), it needs to re-engage with the millions of centre-left voters who either switched to the Lib Dems or just stopped voting altogether. And if the New Labour old guard stage a coup against Miliband to regain power to drag the party further to the right (again) then they've lost my vote (again) and can kiss goodbye to the millions of pissed off Lib Dems.

[Jeneral2885]

8. After 13 years, Labour has no vision on DFID

Harriet Hamran is only focused on getting 0.7% of GNI on aid.