Monday, September 27, 2010

Red and Dead, Ed Miliband wins Labour leadership by the union vote, he fails to win majority of Labour MP’s and rank and file members, not good start













Dear All

The Labour leadership contest is over and produced an expected result, a Miliband won.

‘Red’ Ed Miliband pipped his brother David by the slimmest of margins.

He was the unions ‘stop David Miliband Candidate’.

Already he has declared:

“I am my own man.”

There will be no change from the current New Labour strategy although it appears he plans to do away with the New Labour’ tag as a brand.

The Labour Party isn’t shifting position as Miliband there would be no lurch to the Left under his leadership declaring:

“I am for the centre ground of politics.”

Hardly new politics and hardly a ‘new generation’ as he was quick to spin to the public.

‘Red’ Ed has a problem; he won on the union vote, in Scotland David Miliband received the most first-preference votes among MPs and MEPs.

Ed Miliband is London Labour.

When he made a 10-minute morale-raising speech at a Hotel Suite, his brother wasn’t there.

The Blairite camp of New Labour will be upset that a Brown supporter is blocking the ‘heir to Blair’ and plotting will start in earnest.

Labour MP Jim Murphy ran David Miliband’s campaign but since he backed a loser, he will probably be stuck with the Shadow Scottish Secretary’s position in the new Shadow Cabinet.

So, what is ‘Red’ Ed’s plan for the Tories, bide his time and follow the approach used by Annabel Goldie,he said:

“I’m not going to oppose every cut that the Coalition Government comes up with. I will judge them on their merits.”

Hardly new politics from a new generation!

Now that the Labour Party has Ed Miliband as leader, they will embark on a simple message:

‘Ed gets it’.

Sadly, he doesn’t, his will be a lacklustre leadership, although there is the public declaration of support now the contest is over, the majority of both Labour MPs and rank-and-file members backed his brother David Miliband.


And that is a problem, why work for someone that has been fostered on them by the unions.

I cannot see ‘Red’ Ed making a success of his tenure and the Labour Party will be ineffective for quite sometime.

Ed Miliband has no charisma, comes across poorly and can’t click with public, just like his former master Gordon Brown.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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