2011

Labour Left David Alexander Hough

Why Ed Miliband is the right person to lead Labour into the next election]
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David Hough although never having voted for Ed Miliband, outlines why Ed is the right choice to lead Labour into the next election.

Why is David Cameron so desperate to see Ed Miliband removed as Labour Party leader, and replaced with his brother? Is it an altruistic move because he really feels that Labour under Ed Miliband have failed to provide strong opposition, and that is what he thinks the Tories need? Of course not, each week we see bit by bit Ed Miliband nibbling away at the Prime Ministers certainty, and exposing the inadequacies of his government, and more importantly, the inadequacies of David Cameron himself. Indeed, this to me, strikes me as what is most peculiar about the exchanges in the last year or so, how personal they are.

However, there is a difference in tone from the two leaders. Ed Miliband has focused on Camerons poor decision-making (Andy Coulson primarily) and how the policies of his government are affecting the ordinary people of this country, whereas Camerons on Miliband have tended towards calling him weak, and left wing (as though thats an insult), but thats normal political knock-a-bout (remember Tony Blair to Major when in opposition calling him weak, weak, weak?), but its the references to David that show up Cameron for who he is.

His bullying hectoring style comes through time and again, and every time he loses the argument, he reverts to type, accusing Ed of stabbing his brother in the back (no reference to Hagues betrayal of the agreement he had with Michael Howard) and that Labour MPs are just looking to replace him.

That Cameron uses this tactic so often indicates how Ed Miliband consistently gets under his skin, and as he is unable to come up with a suitable reply, just steers the subject away from the question being asked. However, Miliband is often not given enough credit for his performances at PMQs, and when he has obviously come out on top (more often than you would be led to believe) the media tend to stay strangely silent.

But it needs more than to be able to niggle David Cameron that makes Ed Miliband the right person to lead the Labour Party during this difficult period. Only nineteen months ago we lost the election, and in a big way, losing 94 seats. Yet the Conservatives didnt win an election that was there for the taking because they have a leader, and policies that dont really strike a

chord with the public. Indeed, the bounce Cameron received following the EU summit could be because for the first time he did something that many perceive as a good thing.

As unfair as many of us may feel, we did lose, and Gordon Brown seems to have borne the weight of the blame for that. Hes the leader, and took that on the chin as he should, but it was the way it was personalised that was wrong. Many say that if David Miliband had stood before 2010 and won (no guarantees of that I think) we would still be in power. We may have been, but probably only with Liberal Democrat support, and a party that wasnt changing from the neo-liberal New Labour creation of Tony Blair. Thats not to say that were better off in opposition, but seeing as we are we need to use the next four years or so (with the fixed-term parliaments act now law, it is almost impossible for there to be an election beforehand), to make a Labour Party fit for the twenty-first century, and not one for the nineties or for that matter the thirties.

So why is Ed Miliband the leader to do that and not the other contenders, especially his brother? Firstly, let me deal with the David Miliband issue, and why I do not believe he was the person to take us forward following the election.

Our long and far too drawn out leadership contest gave the coalition four months virtually unopposed to get their message across, especially that the deficit is all Labours fault. It has proved very difficult to rebut that, though the public are starting weary of that as the bad news piles up. But what the contest did show was how each candidate stood up under the constant bombardment of questions from members and supporters. David was always slick, with well-rehearsed answers, but that was exactly his problem, he looked and sounded like New Labour, when it was apparent that whatever else we needed to do, it was move beyond that period. David Miliband would not be that break from the past and would have been opposing Cameron on exactly the same ground, because Cameron was the one who grabbed the New Labour territory. Ed Milibands eventual victory was in many ways against the odds, he was the younger brother of a man who was considered to be virtually anointed. But he refused to be bowed by that, and put forward a different vision, one which sought to include the ordinary membership, and to make us relevant again. Each time he appeared on the hustings his message was the same, to move beyond New Labour, not to abandon the many good things

that happened, but to be prepared to admit the mistakes, such as the Iraq War and a failure to regulate the financial sector. From the moment he became leader, Ed wasnt scared to speak unpalatable truths, I know we lost trust. I know we lost touch. I know we need to change. He recognised that over the years Labour had lost sight of who it was there to represent. By admitting that, Ed put into words what many of us had felt since 2001 was becoming more apparent, as the leadership moved further towards neo-liberalism and showed unspeakable contempt for us over Iraq. Its not that they went to war against our wishes, governments are elected to make these judgements, but they rode roughshod over international law, and were obviously just kowtowing to a right wing American President. Ed Miliband has said he always had doubts about the conflict, and whilst this is difficult to confirm, Mehdi Hasan has written that he believes him, and I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt without evidence to the contrary.

In his acceptance speech Ed Miliband laid out where he believed we had gone wrong, and I dont think anybody can seriously deny he was right, and for those who do not remember it, heres a link http://www.handilabour.org.uk/edmilibandacceptancespeech.pdf Ed Milibands fifteen months in charge have been a constant battle, as those who supported David have sought to undermine him, and thats without the usual invective from the Tories, Liberal Democrats and the majority of the media. This is one of the reasons that Ed has been unable to move forward with his agenda as quickly as he would have liked, because hes been having to ensure his own position is secure, and that took several months, which enabled the coalition to make more hay.

Finally in the early months of 2011 he began to make his own voice heard, as the Refounding Labour project began to reach a conclusion, an outline as to how he wishes the Labour Party to develop as a bottom-up organisation again. He also spoke at the March 26th anti-cuts march in London, in which he said that, David Cameron: you wanted to create the big society. This is the big society. The big society united against what your government is doing to our country. We stand today not as the minority, but as the voice of the mainstream majority in this country.We do not simply reject the government's policies. We reject the narrowness of their vision, the injustice of their ideology and the poverty of their aspiration

for our great country. They are the dividers not the unifiers. We reject their attempt to divide Britain. This isnt the voice of a man afraid to stand up for what he believes in, he said it loud, proud and for all to see. It is since this day that David Cameron has really sought to undermine Ed Milibands position as leader of the Labour Party, as he saw a man who wasnt New Labour, but a man who was ready to stand up and be counted.

Shortly after that followed the phone hacking scandal which all but the most diehard Tory supporters admit Ed Miliband made all the running on. He took great risks doing this, because he too had courted the Murdoch press when he became leader, but was prepared to admit his mistake and take them on. Cameron was forced into holding a full inquiry, and Ed received strong support from Tom Watson, leading the attack on the culture and media committee.

The way he handled the whole affair impressed many inside and outside the party, and showed that when he had his teeth into a subject, and cared not what others thought, he was easily better than Cameron.

The unluckiest part was that all this ended with the summer recess, and although Ed Miliband said all the right things, and tried hard to get the message across that although the criminality of the riots was wrong, there were underlying social issues which needed addressing, the press were only interested in Cameron and Johnsons response.

Conference season came upon us as the economy continued on its downward slide, and there was a lot of interest in what Ed would say. Would he set out a new path for Labour, or would he just justify the doubts of those who said he wasnt up to the job? Ed Milibands speech caught a great many off-guard, his outright condemnation of the neoliberal agenda was unexpected and gave out a message that things had to change, he accepted that Labour had lost trust on the economy, he was honest about how much a Labour government would be able to really do to reverse what the coalition have done (and perhaps being cynical here, isnt it a coincidence that when he says sale of bank shares would be used to pay down debt, the Tory-led government shortly begins the fire sale to Virgin?).

He set out examples of things that had gone wrong: I believe from our conversations over the past year that you, the British people, know it. Youve seen a series of crises hitting our country over the last few years. This summers riots. Not the first time weve seen decent people with the right values losing out to those with the wrong ones. The banking crisis, MPs expenses. Journalists hacking phones. From them all a something for nothing culture. Take what you can. Fill your boots. Who cares as long as you can get away it? And these are just the noisy scandals which grab the front pages. But you know theres a quiet crisis which doesnt get the headlines. Its about the people who dont make a fuss, who dont hack phones, loot shops, fiddle their expenses, or earn telephone number salaries at the banks. Its the grafters, the hard-working majority who do the right thing. Its a crisis which is happening in your town, your street and maybe even in your home. It is a crisis of the promises made over the last thirty years. The promise that if youre in work, you will do better each year. The promise that if you work hard at school the doors of opportunity will open up to you. The promise that if you teach your kids the difference between right and wrong and bring them up properly, they will get a good job, and a decent home.

These crises point to something deep in our country. The failure of a system. A way of doing things. An old set of rules. An economy and a society too often rewarding not the right people with the right values, but the wrong people with the wrong values. So the task of leadership in this generation is no ordinary task.

He then spoke about the inspiring people we have in this country, the ordinary men and women, then added a but, saying that all governments for decades had, and that Labour had played its part in that. He did say that the Thatcher governments had done some right things, even if they were based on the wrong principles, and that much good had been done by the subsequent governments of Tony Blair. But as he went on to say, We changed the fabric of our country but we did not do enough to change the values of our economy. When Ed went on to talk about good and bad businesses, Tories ask, who did he mean? Yet Ed Miliband gave examples in his speech, he gave the bad example of Sir Fred Goodwin

head of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and a man whose practices helped bring about the banking crisis, a man we were wrong to award a knighthood to. Then he countered Goodwin with, Sir John Rose, former Chief Executive of Rolls Royce, a great British business leader. Creating wealth and keeping jobs in this country. He is the true face of British business. The vast majority of our businesses that have the right values and do the right thing. Rooted in their communities. Committed to their workforce. And creating real, lasting value. When people seeking to undermine Ed Miliband, and say he doesnt have a vision, they forget that hes laid it out for us. Yet they choose to put an interpretation on his attack on those who milk the system, at the top and the bottom as an attack on those on benefits. He didnt say that at all, instead he praised those who had paid into the system for years, yet are let down by it. The section that gained the most publicity, however, was the producers and predators which was interpreted by many as an attack on business, yet is it an attack on business to promote the ingenuity of British manufacturers, to state that the future doesnt just depend on financial and tertiary services, but in making and creating things?

Ed Miliband has made it his mission to change the attitude that business is only about making money, that its also about being part of the community. This is a big project, and one that isnt easy to sell in 21 st century Britain, after decades, if not centuries of the mantra that making money is all business is supposed to do.

New Labour started out with many great ideas that changed the Labour Party, and made it electable, but as time went on, they became a version of the Tory Party of the 1980s. As wealth creation for the few became a bigger priority than taking people out of poverty, and giving the British people greater opportunities.

Ed Miliband is moving us away from that now defunct set of policies, and creating a new direction for Labour, fit for the 21st century, but revisiting the true values of equality and opportunity for all. It will be a difficult road, with many trips on the way, but without even trying, and then the Labour Party is doomed to many years in opposition.

I was not an original supporter of Ed Miliband during the leadership election, but have been won over by his courage, and determination not to be knocked off the course he believes is the right one. He demonstrated this when he stood against his brother for the leadership, a brother who was practically anointed but came through. Yes there was the issue of the support he got from the unions, and their lobbying for him, but they all fought under the same rules and had equal opportunity to gain their support. Yet, since then, he has allayed fears that he was in their pockets by standing up to them when needed, and not just parroting union policies.

So I support Ed Miliband, and believe he can lead this party to victory at the next election. He is bravely taking on the vested interests, and standing up for those the Tory-led government is making pay for the bankers and financiers mistakes. The mistake is to think this can all be done quickly, because we mustnt make the same mistake the government has. They have cobbled together ill thought out, badly drafted polices on the backs of envelopes, and we need to ensure we have a set of properly constructed ones, with a definite aim.

The Labour Party that goes into the next election needs to be united, and therefore I say to those who supported other candidates, but have been unable to accept Eds victory, to put aside your disappointment, accept that Ed is the man who will lead us into the next election, and work together to ensure the return of a Labour government.