Does Miliband the elder represent Labour's future?
Peter Hoskin 12:44pm
Danny Finkelstein's right: there are some surprising results in today's ComRes poll for the Independent. The one which catches my eye is that David Miliband would be the most successful alternative leader at reducing the Tories' poll lead. Along with Jack Straw, the poll suggests, he would make Labour the largest party in a hung parliament.
Now, I'm frequently surprised at how popular the elder Miliband remains in Labour circles. But - after the failed coup of last year, the banana and Heseltine moments, and that disastrous trip to India, among other embarrassments - I'd assumed that that popularity wouldn't stretch to more general voters, and that, say, Alan Johnson would do more for Labour's chances. Maybe not, it seems.
I suspect the question preying on a few Labour minds this morning will be whether Miliband really does represent their future. Or whether these latest findings are all down to name recogntion.
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Alun Reynolds
September 28th, 2009 1:12pm Report this commentThe picture says it all. No further comment necessary.
Cuffleyburgers
September 28th, 2009 1:16pm Report this commentGreat photo - captures perfectly his total lack of intelligence.
Looks as if he's about to start scratching under his armpits!
Bring it on, Labour are TOAST.
Olaf
September 28th, 2009 1:28pm Report this commentDoes it matter any more? We hate Labour now no matter who sits at the top of their table.
Banaman more popular than Blinky? That's like asking who's make the better social worker, Hitler or Pol Pot?
Obnoxio The Clown
September 28th, 2009 1:40pm Report this commentI think Comres's pollees are play a cruel trick on Labour. Banana boy wouldn't stop the inexorable disaster at all.
Peter from Maidstone
September 28th, 2009 1:42pm Report this commentThis is a rubbish poll becuase it is asking people to think only about Labour. It is not saying compare Milliband and Cameron and choose who you prefer. It is directing all the attention to Labour figures and so is biased in favour of a Labour result.
john miller
September 28th, 2009 1:50pm Report this commentI've always thought Milliband had the brains of a muppet after the litany of cockups over the last 4 years.
Then it struck me, he really is Ms Piggy. That artful blend of ignorance and arrogance!
So who is his Kermit?
The Bellman
September 28th, 2009 2:29pm Report this commentThe pictures of him grasping for a handshake from President Obama, like a wet-knickered Bay City Rollers fan, reinforces the point that this man is utterly unfit to hold a serious office, even in a country as determined as ours to render itself irrelevant to serious matters.
But he has an outside chance of making it as a third-rate Tony Blair lookee-likee.
Nicholas
September 28th, 2009 2:55pm Report this commentNo. They don't have a future. Their ideology was borne out of the 19th Century and died in the 20th when the wall came down.
They are has-beens. Dangerous has-beens but has-beens nevertheless. Their ideology and style of politics have no place in a modern, democratic society. The retros, retards and "rebels" still supporting them should take up reenactment instead and dress up as Jarrow marchers or something.
John Wightman
September 28th, 2009 3:14pm Report this commentThere's something very fishy about these figures. They're saying that, if Miliband was PM, the Tory vote would fall to 33%, i.e. same as 2005 under Michael Howard.
Or if Straw was PM, the Tories would be at 31%, i.e. two points LESS than Tories in 2005 under Michael Howard.
I think not.
In2minds
September 28th, 2009 3:22pm Report this commentQuote - “Now, I'm frequently surprised at how popular the elder Miliband remains in Labour circles”
Why? Think of Tony Benn, he was always 'popular' in the Labour Party, they love a joke.
Liz Brown
September 28th, 2009 3:26pm Report this commentYup, he has as good a chance of any of them of leading Liebore down the pan..........
Laughing Gravy
September 28th, 2009 4:21pm Report this commentHave a look at the forensic dissection of these poll results by Anthony Wells on UK Polling Report website.
Ken
September 28th, 2009 7:28pm Report this commentChange the picture PLEASE.
Milipede waving a bent banana is really the only acceptable illustration if this political teenager is to be stopped from wreaking more havoc on the national interest.
Was it not Milibanana who only recently did "not rule out" an attack on Iran?
He's mad, bad and wholly inappropriate.
Frank P
September 28th, 2009 11:34pm Report this commentThose two apples fell perpendicularly beneath he tree upon which they grew. For anyone unfamiliar with the pedigree look up Adolphe (Ralph) Miliband who is buried in Highgate Cemetery next to Karl Marx. I'm sure the pippins visit Papa's grave regularly and stop briefly to pay homage to his interred neighbour.
The tree was rotten, the apples carry the same poison, each having sucked on the toxic roots that pollute the Highgate boneyard.
Never forget the legacy of Marx and the murder he incited. Look into the cold-as-ice bug eyes of the second generation of the Miligramscians. The message glints through. They will not be thwarted in their Utopian aims unless the electorate is aware from whence they and their ideology springs: rancid tombs in North London. Communism, in whatever guise, must be resisted at all costs.
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