Ed under siege — and under threat

Verity

Perhaps he should stop taking a leaf out of Dave's attempts to portray himself as Arthur from Accounts and wear a jacket.

Verity

He may look more like a national leader if attired like one.

Verity

The software, which has been being replaced for around six months now, has weakened to the point that it cannot cope with more than one sentence at a time.

Verity

Your posters are going to leave for more welcoming surroundings.

Swiss Bob

Like we didn't know.

Friendless, hopeless and useless and those aren't even his worst traits, such as his complete lack of any actual 'character'.

Mark

Steady on chaps. We don't want to lose him.

David B

Sounds like labour are about to fight the civil war that Brown, Balls, etc kindled against Blair but were to afraid or to yellow to bring into the open.

The Brown legacy will hopefully see them out of power for a generation.

Pete Hoskin

Verity: I've left a comment for you on the Wall as well, but just to say that I'm duty today — so you can email me if you're having trouble posting, and I'll see what I can do.

Austin Barry

Verity 2:40 pm

"...portray himself as Arthur from Accounts."

More of a J. Arthur from the Berkshire Hunt.

tom jones

Another problem Ed faces that Brown didn't is the fact that Labour had been in power for over a decade when Brown became PM and so everybody knew that ousting him and taking over would probably not give them long to make a difference. Major only scraped through in 92. Milliband has many many around him who would love to be in his position and they'd probably do a better job (they know it, he knows it, we know it.) Despite her idiot of a husband, I reckon Yvette might just be more centreground than Milliband (not exactly tough!) I still believe that Labour would be doing a lot better now if they'd gone for David because he would've taken them down a more credible route rather than the 2 Eds and their "evil coalition are ruining their golden inheritance" crap. Anyway, for us ED MUST STAY. No, BOTH EDS MUST STAY!

Jeremy

Verity:

"Your posters are going to leave for more welcoming surroundings."

I don't care. I was tired of looking at them, anyway. Just so long as they don't try to take the toys with them, that's all...

Pettros

He may be a prat but at least he doesn't make light of serious neuropsychiatric disorders.

Verity

Petros - "He may be a prat but at least he doesn't make light of serious neuropsychiatric disorders."

How do you know?

General Zod

OK, Verity, off you go then. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Cynic

I didn't think Labour was very good at assassinating its leaders, unlike the Conservative party. Perhaps David Camerons will organise a protection party - REd's continued leadership must help the Tories by his very unelectability. Although if REd were to be replaced by Balls, that could also be good news.

TrevorsDen

He may be a prat but at least he's their prat.

General Zod

You could well be right about DM, tom, but that's a route that Labour (or rather, thanks to the party's insane electoral system, the unions) chose not to take.

EM is simply without credibility. No amount of synthetic anger about Cameron's use of Tourette's to describe the horrible Ed Balls will change EM's position with the electorate. Even some good new policies would not compensate for the fact that he is seen as a gaffe-prone, weak, perpetual loser.

TrevorsDen

I do not see Mrs Balls as a unifying presence.
I mean we all know Balls will be pulling her strings (thus will perpetuate the Blairite Brownite civil war) and she is clearly just a cypher.

Tarka the Rotter

The tide of unfetterd immigration continues apace, Labour's client-base continues to expand and is feted by HM Opposition - I fear we are set for 'Labour Strikes Back' in 2015. Time to weigh anchor and move to sunnier climes...

Ghengis

Yes, Brown did recruit the likes of Miliband Balls and Mandelson to prop him up, but he also spectacularly took them down wih him. I do not get the point of what else is written in this article.

Axstane

Pettros

There is almost no statement that a Tory politician can make without someone crying "foul". If Cameron had said that one of the opposition reminded him of a corpse would that mean that he was making light of death?

It is perfectly obvious to any half-way sensible person that he, like most of us, was using an analogy. If you can't see that you must be blind.

David L

Gordon's "team" failed to dispatch him partly because they feared the consequences of trying to do so - his thuggish kitchen cabinet; but also because the part constitution makes it fiendishly difficult, convoluted, and lengthy to do so.

Whilst Milliband doesn't have the Stasi that Gordo had, the process remains. My bet is that potential rivals will stay their hands.

And the Labour electoral system of course adds the uncertainty over who would win. After all, last time, the parliamentary party and the party members didn't get the leader they had chosen. Lord only knows who the Unions might go for, if Milliband were to go. Jack Dromey or his missus? Or would they simply go for the organ grinder (or Mrs Organ grinder) rather than the monkey?

Gawain

Looks more like Bert from the post room to me !

fergus pickering

Verity what is this about jackets? He can wear a boiler suit for all I care. Wait a minute? Didn't .... At least his suit fits. Brown's never did. He probably can't afford Dave's suits.

Dennis Churchill

Our political class seem to consist regardless of party of, in Verity’s phrase, Arthurs from accounts. How many of our politicians would hold senior management positions outside politics? I don’t mean backroom strategy roles but actual management---getting things done through other people---actually succeeding in achieving objectives?
Not that we are alone in this, just glance at the pantomime across the channel, no wonder the Chinese are losing patience. How many ways can you say: “it is a fiscal transfer union or the peripheral countries have to leave”?
Why are the political class so useless? Is it their background? Is it the personality types attracted to politics? Is it our political/media culture?

Douglas Carter

To be replaced by who?

Another inbred product from the bubbleword of SpAdland?

Heartless Curmudgeon

Why does that sinister skulking figure in the bottom left corner have the lime light? - or rather, the eerie pink glow?

Is it radio-active?

David Lindsay

A year-long poll lead, a slight blip after the imaginary euro veto, but then the fifth by-election win in a row, as ever with a healthy swing from the Conservatives. Hundreds more councillors, with hundreds more again fully expected this year. What does he have to do?

The answer is that, like David Cameron, he has to be Tony Blair. That is The Rule, according to the over-mighty media who think that is their job to run the country, and according to the tiny number of client MPs whose existence those media deign to acknowledge.

If they pull off a coup against Ed Miliband as they did against IDS, also a successful Leader and therefore a problem, then they will have managed this in and against both parties. They will both have become wholly owned subsidiaries of the Blairite media. Is that what Coffee Housers really want?

Dimoto

Miliband DOES have a support group - the public sector union bosses who made him.
Money is power.

Unless he does something stupid like condemning their disruptive and unjustified (in the eyes of the many) strikes.

Or moves too far in the direction of enthusiasm for cutting public expenditure.

He is certainly in a tricky position.

Dennis Churchill

Douglas Carter
January 8th, 2012 6:48pm
Exactly.
David Lindsay
January 8th, 2012 8:44pm
No, regardless of the political leanings of posters here I get the impression they actually want real talent and real choice.

RKing

Yvette Cooper.... is she the daughter of ET?

I knew I'd seen her somewhere before.
Perhaps she's really "EV" and people would prefer her to ED.

I can see the posters now.....
"Vote for EV she's out of this world"

Archie

What were the findings of that poll about people's perception of EdM a couple of weeks before Christmas? "Looks foreign" was one. "Looks too weird" was another. Perception is all, innit?

Ralph

David,

Echoing what Dennis said, I want an effective opposition leader who will hold the government to account and thus avoid the excesses that occur when the opposition is lacking.

Hexhamgeezer

Ed man walking

Marcher Baron

Anecdotal, I know, but I was having a conversation with a neighbour this morning while I was out walking my dogs. The subject was a local matter (we're fighting an unsustainable development that will wreck the town centre) when à propos of nothing he informed me he'd given up his Labour membership (I'd always thought he was a LibDem); he was sickened by the Milibands and I wasn't even to mention Blair (whose 'creative accounting' about his tax bill was in the papers) as it was bad for his blood pressure. Seems that the current lot of Labour isn't too popular at the grass roots.