[quote]NEWLY elected Labour leader Ed Miliband has moved to play down claims that he will be a puppet of the union bosses and insisted he will be his own man.
[img]http://news.scotsman.com/getEdFrontImage.aspx?ImageID=467946[/img]
Mr Miliband, who dramatically overtook his older brother David in a tight-run Labour leadership contest courtesy of backing from the unions, was at pains to dismiss Tory attacks that he was about to push the party back to the old left.
However, he strongly implied that the previous strategy of accepting public sector cuts laid out by former chancellor Alistair Darling would now be abandoned in favour of an economic policy preferred by the unions of supporting high levels of spending.
In his first interview since winning the gruelling four-month leadership contest to succeed Gordon Brown on Saturday, Mr Miliband said: "I am nobody's man, I am my own man. I am very clear about that."
Sporting a blue tie, Mr Miliband sought to brush off the "Red Ed" tag applied to him by opponents during the contest. His father, the Marxist intellectual Ralph Miliband, would not have recognised him as a leftist, he said.
His comments came as the Tories and Lib Dems in the coalition government pointed out that he lost among MPs and ordinary members and only crossed the finish line first thanks to massive trade union support after running a left-wing campaign.
[B]His pitch to the party was to abandon Tony Blair's New Labour experiment and return to more socialist values.[/B]
Soon after the result was announced, Tory chairwoman Baroness Warsi said: "Ed Miliband wasn't the choice of his MPs, wasn't the choice of Labour Party members, but was put into power by union votes. I'm afraid this looks like a great leap backwards for the Labour Party."
Yesterday she added: "He will face many challenges in the days to come, but if he wants to be taken seriously, the first thing he's got to do is own up to his role in creating the mess that Britain is in and tell us what he'd do to fix it."
The attack came at about the time Mr Miliband was receiving a congratulatory call from Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron.
Addressing questions on a threat of massive industrial action over the planned cuts of more than £80 billion by the coalition, Mr Miliband refused to oppose them. He said he believed strike action would "always have to be a last resort" and insisted that the unions were showing a "sense of responsibility" over the need for cuts.
Mr Miliband also revealed that he had enjoyed a "brief chat" with his brother as they try to patch up the wounds created by the contest, but that it was too early to know whether David would play any role in his shadow cabinet. He said: "We had a brief chat. He has shown extraordinary generosity and graciousness to me both in public and in private and he now wants me to get on with the job of leading the party."
Amid speculation Ed could make his older sibling shadow chancellor, he said: "He needs time to think about the contribution he can make.
I think he can make a very big contribution to British politics."
Mr Miliband indicated that he wanted to employ "all the talents from across our party" in his team, including his defeated leadership rivals. "There is absolutely no business here o
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f any kind of sense of 'who supported whom'. The past is another country as far as I am concerned," he said.
He pointed out that he received more individual votes in the contest than any of his rivals and defended his high proportion of support from the unions.
"Why did union members vote for me in large numbers? Because I was talking about things that matter to working people in this country," Mr Miliaband said. "Not just issues of low pay … or inequality, but issues around tuition fees and how people can get on and their kids can get on in life, housing."
He denied that his election represented a "lurch to the left", but declared: "[B]The era of New Labour is past. A new generation has taken over and it's not about the old labels any more.[/B]"
Asked if he wanted to shift Britain to the left in the way Margaret Thatcher took it to the right, he said: "I think that those labels don't help. That is not the way I would see my leadership. It is not about some lurch to the left, absolutely not. I am for the centre-ground of politics, but it is about defining where the centre ground is.
"My issue about what happened to New Labour is that at the beginning we were a radical, reforming government; we were people who were hungry for change in Britain; we said there were injustices and problems in our society and we needed to sort them out. I'm afraid we became the establishment and when you become the establishment you get kicked out of power.
"There are big injustices we need to deal with in Britain, many of them affecting so-called Middle England - people who are working long hours, they don't have enough time to see their kids, they are worried about their kids getting into debt, they are worried about housing. They are the people I want to speak for.
"All these characterisations about 'Red Ed' are both tiresome and also rubbish."
There is not as yet a single new idea or originality of approach by which voters can judge how much of a change he represents.[/quote]
[url=http://news.scotsman.com/labourparty/I-won39t-push-party-to.6551414.jp?articlepage=1]Source[/url]
I fail to see how he can fulfill his mandate if he doesn't bow to the unions. They were almost entirely responsible for his election and will expect something in return.
Thread sounds like an episode title for Ed Edd n' Eddy.
[QUOTE=Conspiracy;25090568]Thread sounds like an episode title for Ed Edd n' Eddy.[/QUOTE]Wow, it kind of does, that's actually pretty funny.
Nice title
ITV had a creepy picture of him on the news last night
He looks like a younger version of Raymond from the show Everybody Loves Raymond.
[QUOTE=Darth_GW7;25091747]ITV had a creepy picture of him on the news last night[/QUOTE]
[img]http://imgkk.com/i/5rt2.jpg[/img]
Hail great leader ed commieband
I thought this was a misplaced megathread.
[QUOTE=Leg of Doom;25092916]Hail great leader ed commieband[/QUOTE]
Thanks.
[QUOTE=UberMunchkin;25093464]Goddamnit I can't think of a pun.
Heres a quote then from RDD then:
[highlight]There must be a name for this kind of situation.[/highlight][/QUOTE]
That is a rubbish one. I can't think of better, but even so.
[QUOTE=UberMunchkin;25093724]Sorry, I'm not that far into the game.[/QUOTE]
That's not excuse, you should feel ashamed.
:colbert:
I was expecting this to be a shop of Ed's head on John Marston's body.
If he plans to move into a more socially democratic way of government, then I may have to take Labor more seriously in the future.
(Considering most socially democratic countries are doing a shit tonne better than we are)
Every party is "looking out for the Middle Class" nowadays. It's BORING.
[QUOTE=MrEndangered;25095706]If he plans to move into a more socially democratic way of government, then I may have to take Labor more seriously in the future.
(Considering most socially democratic countries are doing a shit tonne better than we are)[/QUOTE]
This exactly. Especially considering our quality of life is considered the worst in Europe. That kind of direction would be fantastic.
[QUOTE=MrEndangered;25095706]If he plans to move into a more socially democratic way of government, then I may have to take Labor more seriously in the future.
(Considering most socially democratic countries are doing a shit tonne better than we are)[/QUOTE]
that's pretty much what the labour party is already...
[editline]11:35PM[/editline]
I'm not quite sure what you think it is if it's not that
Ed Milliband is a continuation of New Labour. What people perceive to be "Red", socialist, or even traditionally "social democratic" in that party is long gone.
Making capitalism "work" for the people? Focus on the middle-class? This is typical third-way dabble that Blair mastered. It's really amusing to see some media outlets frame him as radical or "red", he's not really no where near that. His father was certainly a radical- Ed nor his brother followed in his footsteps clearly.
[QUOTE=toxicpiano;25096301]that's pretty much what the labour party is already...
[editline]11:35PM[/editline]
I'm not quite sure what you think it is if it's not that[/QUOTE]
Like the poster above me said, they're really not anywhere near democratic socialism. They're conservative at worst, and centre-right at best.
[QUOTE=Capitulazyguy;25095853]Every party is "looking out for the Middle Class" nowadays. It's BORING.[/QUOTE]
It's politics, they're going for the class which feels most threatened.
[QUOTE=Wolfie13;25107643][IMG]http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/6634/threadaboutbritishpolit.jpg[/IMG]
:smith:[/QUOTE]
Don't go there.
Coalition =/= Betrayal when sitting back and doing nothing could have caused more problems.
[QUOTE=Darth_GW7;25108705]Don't go there.
Coalition =/= Betrayal when sitting back and doing nothing could have caused more problems.[/QUOTE]
Tell that to Scotland. The Tories are hated here, so any deal with them would feel like a betrayel to those who voted Lib Dem.
[QUOTE=Darth_GW7;25108705]Don't go there.
Coalition =/= Betrayal when sitting back and doing nothing could have caused more problems.[/QUOTE]
They've broken somany promises and some economists believe in the long run the cuts are [I]worse[/I] than keeping spending up.
[QUOTE=MachiniOs;25109501]some economists[/QUOTE]
economist's predictions are rarely right, and considering it's only "some" that makes the prediction even less convincing
They didn't betray anyone.
They had three choices: Go into power with an extremely unpopular government, let the conservatives form a weak government where no party had any real power, or go with the 'winning' party and have the chance of getting some of their policies through.
They picked the best choice out of three shitty possibilities, don't let labor, the Tories or any independents see it as a betrayal, since all they want is your votes. Its better to be in the back seat than outside the car.
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