The new politics of leaning on business
Peter Hoskin 9:20am
Ed Miliband the consumer champion, the saviour of the squeezed classes. That, more or
less, is how the Labour leader has always sought to sell himself — but this morning the sales pitch goes into overdrive. He has an interview with the Daily Telegraph in which he attacks 'Rip-off Britain'. Not the
TV show, mind, but those companies that hammer their customers with extra costs and hidden charges. Excessive savings fees,
car-parking charges, airline levies, bank charges, consumer helpline costs and energy bills; all these should come to an end, says Miliband. And he has a few measures for achieving that.
What strikes me, when reading the interview, is how this fits into a trend of politicians leaning on businesses to make them curb certain excesses. Miliband may, to be fair, be breaking some relatively new ground here, but there were also similiar themes in Nick Clegg's speech on Monday. And David Cameron has long spoken out, in Opposition and in government, about bank charges, energy bills and all that.
And 'leaning' is the word. What typifies this political battleground is the use of threats, rather than hard legislation, and a reliance on transparency. And so we'll hear a politician say, 'Golly gosh, people, those fees you charge just aren't on. If you don't lower them, then we'll have to start raising taxes and busting knee-caps.' Or, 'You really do need to be clearer about what you're charging.' There are examples of both approaches in Miliband's interview.
As we've seen with, say, energy bills, this sort of political pressure doesn't always have the desired effect. But I doubt the various party strategists will much mind. What this leaning achieves, if nothing else, is to suggest that their man is on the side of the little man. And, what's more, it's also basically free. No-one is going to ask of transparency, how much does it cost? And that's a particular boon for Labour at the moment, given their difficult line on the public finances.
So will this work for Ed Miliband? Erm, probably not. The Sun covers his television appearance yesterday by focussing on a small slip-up: he said 'pinch of sugar' rather than 'pinch of salt'. When you're on a losing streak, it seems, it's hard to start winning again.
Previous
Bill
January 18th, 2012 9:37am Report this comment"Excessive savings fees, car-parking charges, airline levies, bank charges, consumer helpline costs and energy bills; all these should come to an end, says Miliband"
But not, you will note, "excessive taxation" and other chiseling by government & local authorities.
Sally Chatterjee
January 18th, 2012 9:39am Report this commentPoliticians cannot have it both ways. The introduce new laws and regulations all the time which make running a business expensive and complicated yet they want low prices now?
All these rules help drive small players out of business as the big companies can afford enough lawyers and advisers to untangle the red tape but smaller ones cannot.
DeeJay
January 18th, 2012 9:40am Report this commentIt makes a change. I thought it was only Nick Clegg who served us with a daily diet of cheap shots.
smell the glove
January 18th, 2012 9:48am Report this commentThe man's got some gall. Can he remind me, just what the last government did, to curb all this bad behavior? nothing. They acctually encouraged local councils, to ramp up car parking fees and penalties, Rouge clampers had a field day.
AlanL
January 18th, 2012 9:48am Report this commentI completely agree about rip-off Britain
I recently bought a political party, and installed my own guy as leader, and now he refuses to do what I tell him. It turns out to be a dud.
Sincerely
Len McCluskey
Tarka the Rotter
January 18th, 2012 9:56am Report this comment'Oh, a spoonful of Alan Sugar
Helps Ed's medicine go down...'
Heartless C.
January 18th, 2012 9:59am Report this commentYes indeedy, Millibland certainly needs squeezing, - 'till the pips fly out, followed by the Yoonyun heavies who put him in!
But wait a mo, - then LieBOre might choose a better 'leader', - now who do they have? Ah - Mr and Mrs Neo-Endogenous - and their mentor, the weird Great Economic Pretender!
Chris lancashire
January 18th, 2012 10:01am Report this commentThe upside might be being seen to be "on the side of the little man". The downside is loss of credibility when nothing happens in response to all this posturing.
All politicians know - but rarely acknowledge - that their are limits to their power. Take executive pay - they well know (or should) that legislating on it is pointless as it would merely spawn a new avoidance industry.
Dominic Allkins
January 18th, 2012 10:02am Report this commentI notice he hasn't included HMRC in the list of organisations that rip us off.
They should be first on the list.
Holly ......
January 18th, 2012 10:05am Report this commentIs the basic problem a lack of any real competition.
The energy companies are beholden to the same original suppliers. Virgin is paying Sky & having to argue the cost for F1 & Atlantic.
Until more 'original' sources are up & running we will forever be 'ripped off'.
Have these nasty 'hidden' charges just appeared from out of nowhere, because we have a Conservative in N0 10? Or have they been around for a while?
Seems to me Labour are either trying to con us, or they have indeed realised just how cr@p they were in government...Yup. The same bods who were at the helm when the country capsized under the tidal wave of debt,huge bonuses, fat cats & 'hidden' charges.
Do I agree with Ed?
To a point.
Do I think Ed will do anything about the problem?
Nup.
Do I think Labour's ability on the economy has changed, because of what Ed is saying now?
NUP.
Not really a vote winner then?
Correct.
Rhoda Klapp
January 18th, 2012 10:08am Report this commentWell, there are two main culprits of the mania for overcharging and chiselling. The government, and the councils. Once they get their act in order, we can go on to private business. Ha ha. Not holding my breath, but amazed that politicians are so completely blind to their own actions that they cannot see the beam in their own eye.
oldtimer
January 18th, 2012 10:13am Report this commentPathetic stuff.
The people who have been ripped off are the taxpayers. Those doing the ripping off are the politicians like MilibandE. Indeed he is personally responsible for the sneaky tariffs inserted into all our energy bills to fund his ill-conceived windfarms.
This is nothing more than politicians seeking to blame someone else and to divert attention from their own mismanagement of the economy over the past several decades. If consumers do not like charges and prices they vote with their feet. They can decline to buy. They can go somewhere else. How else does he suppose that RyanAir has grown to be come the biggest airline in Europe?
Miliband is clueless.
michael
January 18th, 2012 10:29am Report this commentStealth charging, wholly inspired by a decade in which business has been 'dumped on' successfully by governments persistent use of the most heinous deceit. The antithetical sound bite.
Headline relief = stealth 'small-print' levy
Ed's noble populism, not without its merits, reeks of hypocrisy.
For someone who has watched the fiscal revenue of the last administration largely ill gotten thro' the politics of demonising business. I am paranoid enough to ask, where can I read the small-print?
salieri
January 18th, 2012 10:38am Report this commentOldtimer,
Yes, absolutely, but even Ryanair is stuck with the biggest rip-off of all - Airline Passenger Duty - which, as I recall, one G Brown raised to ludicrous levels in order to Save the Planet.
Dave B
January 18th, 2012 10:43am Report this commentIn "rip off Britain" I'd include HS2, which has massive waste of money written all over it, and HMG energy policy to force consumers to overpay for their electricity to subsidise "Green" power generation.
Paul Danon
January 18th, 2012 10:49am Report this commentIn a true market, customers have the sanction of moving their business elsewhere. In non-markets, regulation is needed or the introduction of a market. Let politicians concentrate on curbing their own excesses.
Michelle Bonwicke-Jomes
January 18th, 2012 10:53am Report this commentHe is very good at using other peoples ideas
responsible capitalism has been spoken about by David Cameron for many years (Whilst Ed Miliband was preoccupied with plotting against Tony Blair, David Miliband Etc...)
'Rip off Britain' A term first mentioned by his previous boss a certain Tony Blair,
Should i mention Pensions, Savings, Local Goverment, The Eu, and Energy companies when Ed Miliband was Energy Secretary ETC...
'Rip off Britain'is the Legacy of the last Labour goverment prehaps Ed Miliband should have spent his years in goverment drawing up proposals for a crackdown on politicians to protect the electorate from those who wreck the ecomony.
HFC
January 18th, 2012 11:01am Report this commentUnion dues,anyone?
Andrew Taylor
January 18th, 2012 11:07am Report this commentOh look! The Emperor has got a brand new shiny suit!
AAE
January 18th, 2012 11:43am Report this commentSo he doesn't find anything odd about the state confiscating so much of our income, with threats and menaces, but having no contractual obligation to us whatsoever! We get what we're given and expected to be grateful for all these 'free' services provided by inefficient, incompetent, sanctimonious latter day Nightengales and Theresas.
Fish
January 18th, 2012 11:51am Report this commentSo he wants transparency and and end to stealth charges.
That'll be the transparency of a Gordon Brown budget then - where it took months, even for tax experts to realise the devastating impact of his small print.
This is yet another bandwagon for Miliband to jump on, and not unusually one already moving, given Cameron's attack on airline charges.
Miliband seems increasingly desperate to gain attention - at the moment he seems a bit like a prepubescent with ADHD
c0mat0es
January 18th, 2012 12:05pm Report this commentThe leader of the party that raided pension funds and introduced air passenger duty and the so-called renewables obligation is ill-qualified to lecture on business rip-offs.
Clear Memories
January 18th, 2012 12:26pm Report this commentSo, the lookalike for Ginger from Chicken Run plans to lean on those that inconvenience the public does he?
Guess he'll be starting with his ex-supporters in the public sector unions who, to a man (or woman or gay or transgendered newt) take from the public pocket and deliver sweet FA, other than aggravation and upset.
Just how many Town Planners, Traffic Wardens and other sundry parasites do we actually need?
Lean on 'em Ed!
Cynic
January 18th, 2012 2:31pm Report this comment"Excessive savings fees, car-parking charges, airline levies, bank charges, consumer helpline costs and energy bills; all these should come to an end, says Miliband." Let's see; airline levies - green tax, energy bills - green tax. There is income tax on savings (up from 10% to 22% thanks to Gordon's "tax cut") with lamentable interest rates and rampant inflation, and car parking charges are being imposed on unwilling towns by unitary or district councils. None of this is the doing of nasty companies as far as I can see. It's all government or local government generated. If Miliband really wanted to help the squeezed middle, he'd be advocating small government, a lighter regulatory burden and low taxation. A squadron of porkers just flew past my window in formation, to the strains of the Dambusters' March.
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