It’s safe to say that Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg don’t get on. Even before he was
elected leader, Miliband told the New Statesman he would never work with the Lib Dem leader:
He refused to share a platform with Clegg in the AV campaign, and then attacked him in Newcastle with a list of promises he accused the Lib Dems of breaking.“Given what he is supporting, I think it is pretty hard to go into coalition with him.”
All along, the plan has been to turn those who voted Lib Dem in 2010 against Clegg and lure them over to Labour. Whether it’s working is hard to tell. In the latest Ipsos MORI poll, 52 per cent of 2010 Lib Dem voters said they were “dissatisfied” with Nick Clegg, but then only 23 per cent are “satisfied” with Ed Miliband. Overall, it shows 27 per cent of the 2010 Lib Dem voters now backing Labour, and 54 per cent sticking with Clegg’s party. Although MORI’s sample size is small, this is backed up by the latest YouGov polls, which also show around 27 per cent of 2010 Lib Dems switching to Labour.
Perhaps attempting to build on this, Miliband used his conference speech to attack Clegg again – making him the butt of two of his “jokes”. While his attacks on Cameron were restricted to
policy – austerity, the 50p tax rate and the NHS – his jibes at Clegg were distinctly personal:
Clegg, too, slammed Miliband (along with Ed Balls) in his speech last week:“You know, the boundary review means his seat will be represented by a Tory after the next election, so no change there.” “It wouldn’t be responsible to make promises I can’t keep. That’s Nick Clegg’s job.”
Given all this animosity, any future Lib-Lab coalition would surely require at least one party to change its leader. Or perhaps both: Ladbrokes now have both Clegg and Miliband at 6/4 to be replaced before the next election.“Imagine if Ed Miliband and Ed Balls had still been in power. Gordon Brown’s backroom boys when Labour was failing to balance the books, failing to regulate the financial markets, and failing to take on the banks. The two Eds, behind the scenes, lurking in the shadows, always plotting, always scheming, never taking responsibility. At this time of crisis what Britain needs is real leadership. This is no time for the back room boys.”
But, interestingly, Miliband seems not to mind borrowing from Nick Clegg when he wants to appear anti-establishment. Compare and contrast this section of Miliband’s speech today:
with this from Clegg’s first conference speech as leader back in 2008:“My task, our responsibility, is to make government work better for people. The patient frustrated when they can’t be seen by the person they want. The victim of crime who just wants their case properly investigated. You know what it’s like. You stand in the queue. You hang on the phone. You fill in the form. And then all you get? Computer says no.”
Both, in fact, delivered in the very same hall in Liverpool. Miliband wouldn’t be aping the man who was (briefly) “the most popular party leader since Winston Churchill“, would he?“First the great monoliths of centrally-run bureaucracies must be opened up – and run for the sake of the people, the patients, the pupils. These days individuals are powerless in the face of the rules and regulations that run everything. Every sensible request is met with a mindless “Computer Says No”. “Who hasn’t got stuck in the nightmarish world of an automatic phone service they laughably call a “helpline”? The lift music. The menus. The mechanical voice that tells you “your call is important to us”.”
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