The leadership duo of Ed and Ed made an appearance this morning to rev up support for Labour ahead of this week’s elections. Today was all about appealing to those who have felt hard done by the government and want something different, whatever it may be.
Miliband concentrated on setting out five ‘priorities’ for next week’s Queen’s Speech — the sorts of policies that, he claims, Labour would be enacting in government, and which we’ve heard from him before. Balls meanwhile was in full attack mode, deploying the usual buzz words and phrases, such as ‘alternative’, ‘fair’ and ‘Robin Hood tax’ to back up Miliband. The duo were in fine spirits, back slapping and taking pot shots at Clegg (‘If I came along and made a load of promises I couldn’t fulfill, I’d be Nick Clegg,’ for example).
It took Miliband just five minutes to mention Jeremy Hunt and Murdoch — but a whole nine minutes to mention the London Mayoral race. Even then, there was not a single reference to Ken Livingstone, just support for a ‘Labour Mayor in London.’
There were no new policies at all from Balls or Miliband, just intentions to make things fairer. This was not for want of trying from the assembled crowd. The most interesting question came from Maureen, an ardent traditional Labour supporter, who urged Ed not to go back to the policies of New Labour to gain electoral success. This was the only moment Miliband appeared flustered. He managed to edge around any commitment, but it highlighted one of the persistent difficulties of his present situation.
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