I have watched the leader of the Labour party, Ed Miliband carry out an impromptu street appearance In Brighton on Sky News as he arrived for the start of the Labour party conference. If there was any "residue" from his last public appearance when he was egged by an idiot in London's East Street market, then it didn't show here and he looked not the slightest bit bothered. In fact at the time of the egging a few weeks ago he 'yoked' and laughed with Sky's Jon Craig and asked; "did you throw that"?
After Ed Miliband spoke, he took questions from the crowd mainly from ordinary shoppers who surprised to see him in their street had stopped to watch and listen to him. Unlike David Cameron at his "Cameron Direct" sessions Mr Miliband did not know what questions he was going to be asked and again unlike Cameron, he hadn't been briefed and supplied with stat answers! He calmly and adroitly dealt with the questions as they came. Taking questions publicly is a political minefield for any politician because as we all know members of the public can be pretty unpredictable - and quite right too! I suspect that no matter how awkward the questions get, Ed miliband wouldn't have it any other way.
A member of the public asked if he thought Tony Blair was a war criminal (strong stuff). However he didn't balk and gave a straight and honest answer. He said he didn't think Blair was a war criminal and that he thought Tony Blair had made the decision in good faith, but he still believed it to be the wrong decision and we shouldn't have gone to war in Iraq and that Labour had had to learn the lessons of Iraq which they have done, which is why he refused to back David Cameron's decision to launch military action in Syria.
He dealt with a question from a homeless person which was pretty incoherent thankfully TV crews had the decency not to televise her as she was obviously distressed. Ed picked up on this and immediately sent one of his workers to to talk to her and try to help her.
Ed Miliband does plenty of these impromptu street visits apparently, not that we would know as they mainly go unreported by a hostile right wing Tory supporting press hellbent on keeping the public from learning who the real Ed Miliband is.
The Tory supporting right wing press have an agenda and it is a simple one, they want to keep Ed Miliband and Labour out of government at any cost. It really would not matter if Ed and Labour were absolutely perfect, the right wing press would still find ways to tarnish them and they will use just about every dirty trick in the book and more besides to bring about their aims.
The Damian "McWho - the hell cares" is a classic example of this. As we know timing is everything in politics so perhaps someone can explain this:
- First the long awaited Brooks and Coulson trials are suddenly deferred until 28th October after the Tories annual conference, (supposedly on a legal matter).
- Then the Daily Mail fills the void made by the absence of the Brooks and Coulson trials with the Damian McWho the hell cares book (which has obviously been specifically timed to be released at the beginning of the conference season).
If I wasn't such an old cynic I would be wondering if the Tories Aussie attack dingo Lynton Crosby had not persuaded his master, PM David Cameron and the Attorney General Dominic Grieve QC MP (Conservative) to have a little word in the shell like of the judge conducting the Brooks/Coulson trials to see if a postponement could be arranged.
I sincerely hope not because if this were to turn out to be true this would be serious!
Andy Coulson the PM's former aide is charged with several charges, amongst them two charges of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office. Makes the Damian McWho the hell cares spat between testosterone alpha males and their daft infantile power struggles look positively benign!
I wonder how long it will be before we all learn about what Lynton Crosby has been up to behind the scenes? Influencing and benefitting government policy on tobacco packaging? Alcohol pricing? Private healthcare contracts? Fracking? And the latest, the connection between one of Crosby's clients and Syrian rebels? (Whom of which the British government have spoken about arming - truly scary corrupt stuff).
The right wing press and the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties have vested interests in keeping the public from getting to know the real Ed Miliband, so they smear him and negatively spin against him at every opportunity.
For Cameron and Clegg it's political and for the newspapers it's because they do not want to lose any of their power, they are terrified that if Ed Miliband became PM he would implement the Leveson recommendations in full, and after the despicable behaviour of the Sun and Daily Mail in particular, if Ed does become PM, I sincerely hope he does implement Leveson it will serve them right!
The mad and bad ranting behaviour of these two papers over Syria was absolutely loathsome, anyone would think that Ed Miliband was some mad axe murderer, not a decent man/politician who had learned the lessons of Iraq and actually listened to the will of the people and managed to pull the PM David Cameron back from the brink of bombing innocent Syrians and thus preventing Cameron from making the biggest mistake of his political career, and God knows the prime minister has made some real howlers! Cameron should be thanking Ed Miliband not insulting him.
Because of Ed Miliband President Obama was also forced back from the brink, this has led to what looks like a diplomatic solution in Syria brokered by the Russians and quite possibly a ceasefire in the civil war destroying Syria. If Cameron and Obama had got the permission they sought to bomb Syria, then none of this would have happened.
Yet the Sun, Mail, Telegraph etc have totally ignored this fact! All Ed Miliband has got for his troubles is lied about, defamed, bullied and insulted in the most despicable way by these papers and the British PM and staff at Downing Street. The language emanating from Downing Street because Camerons lost the vote was truly shaming and an embarrassment to this country and totally unprofessional and unstatesmanlike.
Now Labour are starting to show their hand with some excellent policies, the hated Tory bedroom tax is to be scrapped and working families with young children will get extra child care they desperately need and zero hour contracts to be outlawed Slowly we are seeing the start of Labour policies for the next election and it looks like the Labour manifesto is shaping up to be a pretty decent piece of kit for the ordinary person on the street. It is clearly showing how people will be better off under Labour.
It's obvious who and what Labour stands for they stand for fairness and decency in all walks of life- "One Nation"
4 comments:
Great post, Gracie. Just watched some of Ed's interview with Tory stooge Andrew Marr - he did really well.
The character assassination of Miliband is going to go from bad to worse. However, I think the public are beginning to see through it and see Ed's true integrity and bravery.
It's a start, but there's a long way to go. Now I want to hear Ed say he'll reverse the privatisation of the NHS. I was talking to a nurse friend yesterday. She works in a hospital on the Wirral. She says there have been people from Tesco of all people sniffing around seeing what services they can cherry-pick. And her own Trust, Wirral, are bidding to take over services in Wigan! All the while patient care is suffering terribly.
Hi Nicky, I thought he answered Marr's ludicrous questions really well. One of things I really respect about Miliband he answers question and does not shirk them. (Rare in a politician)
I think this is going to be an extremely dirty election from the Tories and the Mail is already at it, they have McBride doing the rounds tomorrow on ed's speech day to try and detract from it, this really should not be allowed, it is a deliberate attempt to keep the public from seeing a politician, who after all is standing to be their prime minister.
@Terry well you will be pleased to learn that Labour's intention to repeal the NHS reforms was confirmed by Liam Byrne at conference today.
Although both Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham have said this many times.
Tesco sniffing around a hospital in Wirral?
Disabled people are still going to die though - apparently that doesn't matter to labour
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