Miliband speaks to the common people

Ed Miliband stands accused of many faults, but he rarely slips an opportunity to be opportunistic. James has said that the error and arrogance of the banking establishment, epitomised by the LIBOR and mis-selling scandals, allows Miliband to pose as a ‘tribune of the people’. And so it has come to pass. Miliband has today addressed the Fabian Society – a generous audience for him to be sure, but a suitably humble platform for him nonetheless. 

He received a sort of reverse show trial: a lot of predictable questions to which he gave answers of breath-taking predictability. But that is their strength. Tony Parsons has a piece in today’s Mirror in which he argues that Miliband is beginning to sound prime ministerial. I could not say what prime ministers sound like as a rule; but there was an empathetic note to Miliband’s usually adenoidal tones this afternoon. And empathy is of huge value. Garbled spiels past about ‘fast buck culture’ and ‘predatory businesses’ have a human focus that his audience can begin to understand – interest rates, lies and Bollinger.

‘We need to stop pay-day lenders continuing bad practice,’ he said – keen to apply consistent values to those financiers who live the Bucks Fizz lifestyle as well as the more infamous champagne-guzzling variety. There should be a ‘full, open and independent inquiry’ into LIBOR, which sounds all together more powerful than a plain old public inquiry. It’s vital that probity is restored, he said, because ‘too many depend on Barclays so we need to sort out the way they work’. He also said that the LIBOR scandal was about ‘the family struggling to make ends meet and pay their mortage’, which is inaccurate but not incredible. And he dismissed the view that the City would take flight, saying: ‘We’ve listened to the politics of threat from the banking industry for too long’.

Miliband knows this to be the case because he listened intently as a conscientious aide to the chancellor who introduced the ‘light-touch’ regulatory system under which the LIBOR scandal took place. His shadow chancellor and former city minister, Ed Balls, was similarly employed. He has conceded that Labour got regulation wrong.

Conservative types will tell you that they’re relishing the chance to kick the two Eds where it hurts: this gargantuan improbity, the obscene bonuses, the financial crash and the national debt crisis all took place on Labour’s watch; would you let Tweedledum and Tweedledee near the controls again?

But the Tories have been officially quiet so far. The responsibility of office explains part of this. David Cameron reiterated today that his government would ‘consider these issues very carefully’. He can say little else without overshadowing the regulators’ inquiries, (although Bob Diamond’s appearance before the Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday may shift the tactical ground and force the government to act). But, with public anger (and bewilderment) at such heights, Cameron risks being behind the game. This encourages Miliband to say, as he did today in his homily, that ‘the government doesn’t get it but the British people deserve better than this.’