The Miliband puzzle

Andy Carpark

'Perhaps he is a genius cunningly disguised as a loser.'

Teiresias: And there you speak of your own symptom, Sir. (Sophocles, Antigone)

Dennis Churchill

“Perhaps he is a genius cunningly disguised as a loser. “
He is a grown man who plays with Rubik Cubes: says it all.
The Labour party’s policies options are limited not only by their Union paymasters but also the background of their membership.Peter Oborne recently wrote that it is believed that the largest single group are teachers. Add to that the number of white collar public sector employees and you can see the areas that simply are not open for reform.

Frank P

Why should the readers of an alleged 'conservative' magazine give a shit about the fortunes of two brothers spawned in a Marxist crucible? And why should the same readers tolerate the machinations of an Editor who clearly wants the Labour Party to succeed, when it has only recently been ousted from power (with some difficulty) after thirteen of the most disastrous years in a couple of centuries or more (some might say a millennium) of its history. As for their abilities with the Rubik cube ...? Jeez!

Dave

I just listened to Polly T covering up for Ed on Sky (Sat lunchtime with Fraser) and it sounded like when she was covering for Brown - "Cam is a shallow PR man, Ed is not Flash, just Ed, we need to get Ed out to meet people because they always say how impressive he is, this does not always come across on the TV, Ed has only had 15 months, people will find the truth about Cam.....and so on" I am sure I could find an article from 2008 she said similar things about Broon.

Leo McKinstry

Excellent analysis, Fraser. The Guardian interview was very revealing about his utter vacuity and lack of character, particularly the hollow boasting about his "grit". John Wayne he is not. One thing that I am sick of hearing about Ed is that he's a "nice bloke" or a "decent guy". How on earth can that description be applied to someone who shafted his own brother purely for own vanity? It was a destructive act of treachery by an arrogant, self-obsessed political wierdo, not a grown man with any sense of morality or loyalty.

Austin Barry

'Perhaps he is a genius cunningly disguised as a loser.'

The opposite of Stephen Fry then.

Peter From Maidstone

I could do a Rubik's cube in under a minute. It's not genius at all. It just requires learning a series of mechanical moves. 90 seconds is rather slow.

Vulture

For the editor of a so-called Conservative magazine to refer to the Labour rabble as 'a great party' is utterly risible.

The only question remaining around Labo0ur is whether their 13 years of ruinous rule which reduced Britain to a stinking toilet
was motivated by incompetence or malice.

The Milliband brothers are less than mediocre. They are vacuous nobodies.

BigAl

So Ed wants "better capitalism". How about better politicians?

Nicholas

No, of course Milliband in opposition doesn't need to get his best policies out now. But that is because he is a Labour politician. I remember when Cameron was in opposition how relentlessly the leftist collective, the BBC and people like Toynbee demanded to know his policies, in detail. There are two standards in this country. One for the left and one for the Tories.

God, the short memory and addled collective brain of the media are something else. When is truth going to get a chance in this stupid, stupid country, eh?

A social democrat

Fraser, very acute analysis.

My only hope is that, as each day passes, the similarities between the political position of Ed M and IDS will become clearer and the Labour Party will summon up the courage to strike. It is very unlikely, but not as unlikely as before.

Of course, the one time we did do this - in 1935 - we enjoyed a 7.5% swing. So every Tory out there should desperately want Ed to stay and everyone who hopes for a progressive future should hope for the opposite.

daniel maris

Surprisingly he seems to have less understanding about what the public think than our Old Etonian Prime Minister.

I think it's a cultural thing: you can imagine that, from his background, being able to solve a Rubik's cube puzzle in 90 seconds is the sort of thing you might like to mention. But for the great mass of the population they probably view such a claim with suspicion or derision. Clever kids who show off are never very popular.

He doesn't seem to connect well with people - just as IDS failed to connect.

So, Labour have a big problem on their hands, no doubt. Labour's progress depends entirely on the goverment's performance.

SJH

Austin B: Spot on

Dean

Able? No, Cain

Alefrith

As someone once said "even the biggest fool can be mistaken for a genius until that is he opens his mouth" or for that matter twitters like a twit.

Y E T Another Toady

Excellent analysis, Fraser.

Gag.

tony morgan

The labour party must realise more more that they chose the wrong Milliband as leader.When Ed Milliband speaks he comes over as weak and unimpressive like a novice still learning his trade.The party needs to replace him without delay.

PlatoSays

I double checked the 'steel and grit' quote as I couldn't believe my eyes. The whole Parick Wintour article sounded like a Camilla Long hatchet job.

I found myself thinking of Howard Wolowitz from the Big Bang Theory when reading it.

Heartless Curmudgeon

Well, proves yet again that the "Progressive" LieBOre party is again led by a mechanistic automaton.

There is a faux childhood 'condition' that many of these kind of people are said to 'suffer'. Now what was it?

Ed P

It doesn't matter whether Ed or Dave "lead" this sceptic isle: until we are free of EU control they have no real power and either would be bound to follow similar dreadful policies.

Paddy

It's the same old story!

The Labour party couldn't get rid of Brown. Then Miliband snr lost his nerve when it was time to step up to the plate.

Boy wonder can manage a rubik cube in 90 seconds.

How can you waste any of your time on this boy Fraser. I can see Toynbee's agenda....she's more on message than any of the shadow cabinet. She's probably been schooled by Campbell.

The Miliband brothers are a pair of twerps and the frightening thing is they think they are good.

It's typical of some of that generation...."gis a job, I can do that". No fear because they are basically stupid.

If you want to see a real politician in action Fraser.....watch an old clip of Mrs Thatcher on you tube. She has the whole of the HOC completely under control.

boudicca

Like it or not, a significant section of the electorate vote according to their instincts - their perception of the party Leader.

What most people will know about Deadwood is:
a) he shafted his brother to win the leadership
b) he didn't marry the mother of his children until he had to
c) he didn't even register as the father of the first

Then they also see someone who:

a) looks a bit weird - certainly doesn't look 'normal British'
b) talks out the side of his mouth; is a bit pop-eyed
c) lisps and sounds bunged up all the time

There nothing he can do about any of this but it will be enough to convince a large number of people that he 'isn't prime ministerial' and they won't vote for him.

And that's before he starts talking policies.

disenfranchised

isn't that just the sort of thing geeky swots would brag about? he can do the rubik's cube in 90 seconds!
woop-bloody-woop. again, for the umpteenth time, who cares?
we don't pay him to do the rubik's cube, we, erm, pay him to, erm.....lead....zzz....the...zzz....labour...zzz...party.
hmmm, on second thoughts, that's pretty impressive stuff, ed, being able to do the rubik's cube in, what was it? i've forgotten. well done, mate, even if some clever-dicky above can do it 60.
one could actually doze off discussing milibean. it would be a very easy thing to do, should you ever be bored enough to get into such a discussion.
again, one can but pity the lad.....

Paddy

PS: She'd beat Miliband even with dementia.

canonalberic

One analysis of this bizarre electorally suicidal psychodrama is that Ed never actually expected to win in the first place.

The look on his face in Manchester in 2010 when he realised he had done so said it all - shock and fear not triumph and trepidation.

He was perhaps pursuaded to stand by a complex mix of reasons (including quite clearly collosal personal vanity) figuring that at best he would come second and secure a senior position in the shadow cabinet not otherwise commensurate with his abilities or one suspects his elder brothers estimation of them.

What actually happened was that the balls/unite/brownite clique saw it as a golden opportunity to take out both brothers: one imediately and the other when he had either lost the election or, as seems distinctly possible, even sooner; thus leaving a clear run for the then quite unelectable Cooper/Balls ticket. They, or more correctly she, are so much the beneficiaries on the quis bono principle are they not?

The end for Ed will be quite Shakesperian methinks, and not in a nice way.

david

When a party has been in government for an extended period it'll take time for it to readapt to opposition and to sort itself out. I should remind those sneering Tories it took them 10 years and 3 dud leaders to establish a credible poll reading, and even then couldn't win a GE election outright.

David Cockerham

If he means that, having learnt the correct sequence for doing Rubik's cube, he can actually physically do it in 90 seconds, so what? So can anyone. If he means that, from not having a clue how to do it he figured it out and did it in 90 seconds, I'm not quite sure which I find the more frighening, the fact that he can lie on such a breathtaking scale or the fact that he must be so unbelievably thick as to believe he can get away with telling a lie on such a breathtaking scale.

Hugo Chav

Ed should replace Ed Ballsup and then formulate a plan for Peak Wealth in the UK and how to mitigate our Undeveloping Nation status. He needs to focus on Growth and Responsibilty, in paricular waste in the Public Sector. The glory days of Social Democracy are over.

Holly ......

I am loving every minute of this.

The more the media show how the stinking gobshites at the top of the Labour party are now having to eat their words, Every one of them uttered by Labour for the last eighteen months, the more the public will have no use for them.

Labour think they are on to a winner with this new lie. Labour in government & fiscal responsibility has never happened at the same time...EVER!

Ed is Steel?
Coop must be Sapphire then?

Privateer

Anyone who has ever led anyone knows that there is a big difference between thinking about leading and actually leading.

If it was easy everyone would do it.

Magnolia

Ed is the petulant child.
I got one of those Christmas crackers with the spring/ring puzzle in and I worked it out myself!
Does that count because I never had a Rubik's cube?
Why is Fraser sounding wistful and maudlin about Labour going down?
Ed's the product of their eusocial insect like political organization.

Cynic

He does the Rubik cube? That's so 1970s! Mind you, Labour has been trying to take us back to the 70s for some time.

Cynic

"There nothing he can do about any of this but it will be enough to convince a large number of people that he 'isn't prime ministerial' and they won't vote for him." Sadly, boudicca, dyed-in-the-wool Labour voters and those who are dependent on Labour keeping the welfare handouts flowing will vote for anybody, no matter how fratricidal, weird or totally lacking in Prime Ministerial qualities, who wears a red rosette.

David

Labour have two problems - the Labour Party and its leader.

Neither is popular or respected, although the leader ranks lower than the party.

It's a problem they'll only resolve when they can show - through policies and philosophy, that they're not trying to hold back average people to 'save' the underclass and the unionised public sector.

Right now, the voters believe otherwise, thinking that the party is totally in the pocket of the unions, and obsessed with benefits and (more) public spending. This is only one tiny part of most people's lived experience in this country, and so makes Labour look marginalised.

Factor in an oddball opportunist leader with a higher opinion of himself than the country has of him, and neither Balls nor the Party can relate to normal voters. Result: electoral oblivion, regardless of how the Coalition does. Right now, it's 'anyone but Ed and/or Labour' as far as the country is concerned.

Labour need dramatic change, from the grassroots up, to ever get back into power. It's not just about Ed getting married and hiring a new spin doctor. If they think it is, then they just don't get it.

Dimoto

Red is the quiet man, but he's turning up the VOLUME !
Daft bugger.

So Mr Nelson now reckons the school reforms are all down to Blair 'n Adonis (after spending two years telling us that they are inspired by the Swedish experience -Doh!)

It's a strange syndrome : Mr Nelson is the easiest mark that the Labour harridan set have ever encountered.
Everytime he meets one, he morphs into a Labour fellow-traveller.

joe

Anyone else think Ed is just a fall guy while Dave conveniently disassociates himself from this failed period of the Labour Party and is primed by Mandy.

Dimoto

Any chance we could arrange an arm-wrestling matchup between Mr Steel 'n Grit - the Rubik exterminator, and Mr 30 dragons slayed Cleggover ?

Mr eight-pints-of-ale-a-day Hague, could ref the bout.

anyfool

Milibands father wrote not long after fleeing to England from the Nazis
"When you hear the English talk of this war you sometimes almost want them to lose it to show them how things are.
His son say he was his inspiration,
inspiration can be cruel just ask his brother.
it wonderful what values immigration
sometimes brings.

Archibald

There is a myth continually trotted out by the Westminster media such as you and Polly, Fraser. It's the one that says that in opposition, you don't have to get your best policies out until closer to the election.

Nonsense. If your strategy is to criticize at every move, you have to be able to offer an alternative. If you don't do that, you look like a muppet. The Tory strategists have seen this, and they press this advantage home every time.

This problem is compounded for Ed – if your recent history is in your mind (though not your brothers) not all that great and you're not that keen to defend it, but you can't really offer anything other than weak apologies, you surely have to move on fast.

The press have been talking about the blank sheet ever since Ed became leader. You're now saying he doesn't have to fill it in yet. You're wrong, given the situation I think he most definitely does. But all he's done so far is draw a big cock and Balls on it.

Old Slaughter

Please stop hitting on Ed and start to consider him a prized asset. We'll miss him when he's gone.

Fergus Pickering

I thought you had to be a vampire to do a Rubik's cube.

Felix

"An 'In the black Labour' policy would have come free with David Miliband's leadership."

So Ed Miliband has to pay for it, does he?

normanc

So if anyone had any doubts about him being a slightly (only slightly mind you and to balance it he has way less charisma) more articulate version of the Dustin Hoffman character from Rainman they can now be laid to rest.

Why on earth mention the Rubik's cube in 90 seconds? Lame. He should have said he finished GTA IV, Super Meat Boy and Braid without FAQing so he at least appeared semi normal.

Nicholas Hallam

I recall from my childhood that there is a series of steps for "solving" a Rubik Cube that can be followed without difficulty by the meanest intelligence.

Nicholas

David, (Jan 7th 8:44pm) if that is all so then why are Labour polling at 42%, practically neck and neck with the Tories? And why is the public narrative (BBC, most of the media) uncritically following Labour's line? To answer my own questions I think the political reality has little bearing on the perceived ideological conflict. A great chunk of the country disdain the Tories for largely manufactured or manipulated reasons without paying too much attention to the dire reality of Labour. Nothing ever seems to change that and I wonder what would have to happen to make it.

Boudicca

Cynic
January 7th, 2012 8:29pm

Agreed, dyed in the wool Labour voters will still vote Labour (they'd vote for an amoeba with a red rosette). But Labour needs more than tribal Labour voters to win.

The only way he will do it is by default: if Cameron and the CONs continue with their determination to keep us in the EU at all costs and UKIP take sufficient numbers of 'their' vote.

Paul L

The Miliband brothers are the two missing characters from the Big Bang Theory.

Douglas Carter

Antigonish Ed may be appalling as a Party leader - but that's no excuse to feel sentimental for his brother. Rather like the corollary in the Tory party Ken Clarke, one of the main positives in the recent dark days of politics is the knowledge that the authoritarian, Blairite, Neo-EUphile weasel David Miliband will never endanger Britain by occupation of Downing Street. That neither he nor Ken Clarke ever got through that door is at least something we can all be thankful for.

Hexhamgeezer

Frank P @ 7th, 3:00pm

Spare a thought for us poor buggers who got a Spec subscription for Christmas (off the Mrs). I'd hate to the Spec powers-that-be were endorsing this stuff.

Accepting a Toynbee explanation for a dead man walking is just desprate stuff Mr N.

Cynic

@Boudicca "The only way he will do it is by default: if Cameron and the CONs continue with their determination to keep us in the EU at all costs and UKIP take sufficient numbers of 'their' vote." I agree that Cameron's stance on the EU is losing him support among his core voters - I abandoned them at the last election and am prepared to do my utmost to help UKIP against my Conservative MP who voted against letting us have a referendum, although he claims to be EUrosceptic. I can only hope that the surge in UKIP support (not to mention the antics of the EU itself) will hold Cameron's feet to the fire and embolden the rebels.

andrew

" If elections were decided by a Rubik's Cube competition between the party leaders, then Labour would be home and dry. As things stand, they're in a lot of trouble."

LOL!!! and that can be taken literally, as in my laugh was out-loud, and loud enough to produce a puzzled appearance asking 'what on earth is so funny'. alas, she didn't find it quite so funny, being Labour and all...

Rhoda Klapp

His Rubik's cube has 54 tiles, all red. It still takes him 90 seconds.

Banditsat6

Nicholas,

Let me rephrase to something closer to the truth:
A great chunk of the country disdain UKIP for largely manufactured or manipulated reasons without paying too much attention to the dire reality of Cameron's conservatives. Nothing ever seems to change that and I wonder what would have to happen to make it.

tj59sixty

I wish you Tories on here would just chill-out.After all,even if Ed did win the next election you've no need to worry,he's as solid a Neocon as yourselves and thus wont do a thing differently than Cameron.I should know because I wish that he would,but he wont.

MilkSnatcher

Being keen on Rubik's cube shows he is stuck in the 1970s, which is exactly where his Union paymasters want him to be.

Jeremy Poynton

For those who think David would do better than Ed, reflect on his ministerial career

DEFRA - Presided over the Foot & Mouth disaster, and the continuing Rural Payments shambles.

FCO - pissed off Russia, Sri Lanka, Israel, and India so much Mandelson had to be sent there to calm their fevered brows.

Quite why anyone would think David is competent to run anything astonishes me. That Ed is not is clear to everyone. Long may he remain in charge of Labour, with his able sidekick, Balls.

Writeangle

It's totally impossible for Labour to define the cuts needed for one simple reason. The cuts have to be to pubic spending and will reduce the number of jobs. These job losses are where the public unions (who bankroll the Labour party) are strong. The public rightly does not believe that Labour can face up to this. Miliband is now realising that as we are attached to the sinking low growth EU our chances of restoring GDP growth are poor. From what he has said he realised that the deficit will still be a millstone round our necks in 2015 and probably for many many more years.
The public are not going to put spendthrift Labour back in power as they have already extensively proved they are incompetent at handling the finances of the UK. It will take far longer than 5 years to forget this. In addition in 1015 the UK will still be in deficit. Why would the public want to put a bunch of financial incompetents back in charge especially we all know as that Labour cannot face making the necessary cuts?

David Dee

So you have been told that Ed asks himself as to whether David would have done this !!!

Now perhaps you might like to tell us just who told you or is it,as I suspect, just another bit of imagination similar to the rest of your blog.

Have you ever thought of writin a sci-fi blog ??

I seem to recall that our current useless, powerless and pantomime PM spent his days in opposition without announcing a policy except his 'day one' policy of repealing the hunting acts.

Did the press tear him apart for his deep concern for poor, rich country folk whilst we were in the depths of a global recession ??

Did they hell !!!

Fortunately for us, this did not wash with the electorate and he pee'ed a double figure lead in the polls to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

We may also be pleased to see that he was advocating a policy that 75% of the electorate disagreed with !!!!

Unless the Lib Dems come to their senses and join Labour,thereby dumping our useless, powerless and pantomime Pm into opposition even without an election, the Tories are stuck with Clegg and his stirring until 2015 without their being able to do anything at all about it.

Currently it is sufficient for Labour to sit back and wait for the Tory Party to split themselves apart !1

Well done Ed, it is enjoyable to watch and gets better day by day !!!

I am loving it !!!

David Dee

Yawwwnnn. No the old fall back position of the Rubik cube for people like Fraser who are still (!!!) braindead following on from over indulging during the festive season.

The very least that you could do (in fairness) is to tell us exactly what illegal substance our useless, powerless and pantomime PM was either inhaling or stuffing up his,obviously, aristocratic, nose whilst Ed was doing the Rubik cube.

No ?? Funnily enough I thought so !!!