The unions deliver Ed Miliband to the throne

Tarka the Rotter

Since the Milibands like to play the family card - and I have to say the BBC coverage on this aspect was nauseating - let's not forget Grandpa Miliband helped Trotsky liquidate White Russians opposed to Communism and Pa Miliband spent most of his adult political life working to overthrow the political system of the country which gave him shelter from the Nazis... a dynasty to be proud of...

The Cat in the Hat

Labour bankrupted the nation.
You cannot be our salvation.
Don't put your head in the sand,
Mr Edward Milliband.
The future is blue with a hint of yellow.
And there is nothing you can do, however much you bellow!

strapworld

Thank goodness this non event. Five candidates we could all forget easily and the most nondescript gets the job. Son of parents who are committed communists, brother of banana man, tool of the unions.

Perhaps now Coffee House will concentrate on Coalition politics?

Perhaps you could offer Richard of York a guest spot so we can all have a good laugh?

Fex Urbis

The fact that the buffoon Kinnock looked so delighted tells you all you need to know about Red Ed. PMQs is going to be fantastic, Dave and Cleggy must be pissing themselves laughing already!!

Silent Hunter

Labour can hardly call this a 'ringing endorsement' of Ed, when only the Union vote got him the job - the rest of the Labour fellowship clearly wanted 'David' to win.

Now that's not exactly a recipe for harmony within Labour ranks.

JOANNE KAYE

"Those wonderful folks who will bring is strike after strike'? What rubbish. Union members voted individually in this ballot - they are the wonderful folks who work in our hospitals, drive our ambulances, look after old people, help our children across the road, deliver our post, work in our schools and they do these jobs day in day out and around the clock. I suppose that as just as we should expect nothing from a pig but a grunt, ordinary working people should expect nothing but contempt from writers in The Spectator

Will J

Notice you filed it under David Mills instead of Milliband - has he been forgotten so soon?!

WetherspoonThree

'It was the unions wot won it for Ed'..well so it seems but I understand that only 10% of the union college decided to vote for any candidate including Diane Abbott(still complaining she lost because she didn't have enough dosh to fight her campaign!).
The real story is the failure of the Labour Party election process which arguably has produced an unelectable leader. Anyone, who in his acceptance address, can list all the failures of our society, just a few short months after 13 years of Labour mis-rule and not smile at the sheer absurdity of it all is doomed in my opinion.

Call me Infidel

The bruvvers will of course demand a return on their investment.

Moriarty

He won on the back of the Bob Crow vote.

Tories need to say that again and again and again.

Mike

The "Bob Crow" vote rather than the support of Labour MPs and members handicaps Red Ed from the start, the intercine warfare from the Blarites who will be frankly livid that their man lost will drive Labour into civil war.

Paddy

Ed Balls said "if he had a few weeks longer to campaign he may have won".

Does this mean he could have broken - sorry twisted a few more arms?

Joe

While criticism of the manner of Ed Milliband’s victory is certain, it is misdirected by all other than firm defenders of the Electoral College voting system. It is true that is older brother won two of the Electoral College sections by small margins and that Ed won just one, that of the trade unions and affiliated societies. However to use this to suggest his victory was unrepresentative is to misunderstand the nature of the electoral college system and in particular the value upon which the Labour Party invests in its three voting bodies. The bare facts given here obscure the fact that Ed won more votes than David and that arguably in a more fair voting system would have achieved a less ambiguous victory.
Though this may not go any way to dampening critics of the new party leader or answering the questions he will face if and when the unions react to the Coalitions cuts to public spending, it seems predictable that a large portion of the criticism that will undoubtedly come Ed Milliband’s way will be misguided. The main criticism of the election seems to be the lack of weight given to members of the constituency parties and the comparable power of ‘The Unions’ and MPs, in actual fact a union member is the least powerful voter in a Labour leadership contest. The real issue then, is not that Ed’s victory is unrepresentative but that his victory was won with the support of a potentially unpopular strand of the party. Here then lies the real problem with the election; what relationship does the Labour Party want with its affiliated members.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/6306398/the-unions-deliver-ed-miliband-to-the-throne.thtml

Stewart

If Ed Milliband has any sense he will ignore the unions right now and start off on the right foot with the public by appointing as inoffensive a shadow cabinet as possible. He needs to unite the parliamentary party and sort out their message as soon as possible. An election is likely a long way off so Labour can start saving now and planning on how to attract non Union money for when they decide to move back towards the centre. There is nothing for him to gain by paying back the unions now. He can do that if he gets Labour into power. If Labour membership is up since the election, it will likely take a spike again now that there is a new leader even if it isn't the one the majority of the membership voted for. The unions should be kept at arms length right now by the Labour party if they want to stand a chance of winning.

JohnBUK

Joanne Kaye, so the union people work all day, day in day out! What the F... do you think the people here do then? Then having done all that their pay is taken from them by Bruin and hosed liberally around the State urinal the past 13 years for absolutely nothing - except the biggest debt we've ever seen, pensions destroyed, no police on the street etc etc.

logdon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJRjJjlkbRM&NR=1

Something to look forward to every week on Newsnight?

Following the election and the relentless BBC coverage of Labour, almost as if they hadn't lost, my relationship with that programme has been terminated.

For similar reasons Today, PM or Radio Four in general has superglued their locks into my psyche.

Now we've got them rooting for this imbecile who just can't get it through his head that the days of spending other peoples money until the overdraft threatens our entire economic world standing are over.

My only hope is that this bug eyed Marxist zealot does not somehow win over the people of this country.

It is now up to the media including the Spectator to expose, expose and expose again.

Never must Britain be allowed to be spun into the ghastliness of another Labour victory.

logdon

Before the nitpickers descend,'have'.

Nicholas

Joanne Kaye - you should put those heroic stereotypes on a poster with a great red flag unfurling in the background and a slogan exhorting the workers to destroy the imperialists of the Spectator's Coffee House.

" . . . the wonderful folks who work in our hospitals, drive our ambulances, look after old people, help our children across the road, deliver our post, work in our schools . . . "

But not a word from you for the truly heroic young men and women fighting New Labour's wars, eh?

Phil

Joanne - You are Sally Bercow and I claim my £5.00

Frank P

Even Kevin Maguire is calling him Red Ed, already. Perfect!

A shadow-cabinet job for Bob Crow perhaps? What a carrion!

Sarah AB

Joanne - I also thought there was an odd assumption in this article (given that union members rather than leaders voted) that you couldn't be reading this and also be in a union. If it had been a block vote system then it would have been a fair point as, certainly in my union, the membership seems much less to the left, and much more strike-averse, than the leaders.

Alan Edwards

David Miliband and Ed Miliband, sounds like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown with their roles reversed. I see Ed has studied from the Ian Paisley school of politics, the better man does not neccessarily get the top job. Red Ed now partners Red Ken in London politics, fortunately the futures Blue with a hint of Yellow chaps!

john nunnerley

Hello All,
Well the commies are really trying hard, now the we as the people, are we to be told the the milliband brothers were brought up as future leaders in there late grandfathers way of thinking, as a out and out communist.

Jill D Gregory

I was under the impression that the Banks instigated the depression and that the vote from the Unions was votes from ordinary working people. Give Ed a chance he hasn't even started yet and the bigots are having a go.