Ed miliband

Tuesday

Steerpike

We’re alright! we’re alright!

Mr Steerpike was tucking into half a dozen oysters in the Grand Hotel in Brighton when none other than Lord Kinnock tottered by. What did the old socialist firebrand make of his ideological son’s big speech? ‘I thought it was magnificent,’ the former leader turned EU millionaire peer gushed. ‘Practical patriotism, practical patriotism!’ Like father, like son. I’m also happy to report that his lordship has managed to keep his derrière out of the sea on this trip to Brighton. Well done, sir!

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Ed Miliband: You Are The Quiet Bat People And I Am On Your Side

Ronald Reagan once quipped that  “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” As was so often the case the Great Communicator was only half-joking. He knew government had important jobs to do, jobs only government could do. What was needed was a rebalancing. Government had become too invasive. It needed pruning. (Never mind that not much pruning took place; the rhetoric and the positioning was what mattered.) I didn’t watch Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour party conference this afternoon but no-one, I think, would say he possesses a Reaganesque delivery. But he was in Brighton to tell

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Authentic Ed Miliband is left-wing and passionate

Today we saw why Ed Miliband ran for the Labour leadership. This was not a speech that his brother could have delivered. It was the most left-wing speech I’ve heard from the leader of a British political party. It was, without a doubt, authentic Miliband and delivered with passion. Politically, I suspect the speech now turns on the freeze on energy prices that Miliband announced a Labour government would introduce. The Tories are out to ‘kill it’ rather than ‘adopt it’, warning of the lights going out if it is introduced. The energy companies, whose profits would be hit hard by it, are also up in arms. The issue for

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ed’s tough message to the unions?

If Ed Miliband wanted to use this speech – rather than the one he gave two weeks ago to the Trades Union Congress – to set up a confrontation with the trade union barons, then he’s got a funny way of doing confrontation. His section on party reform, which he rather built up by joking ‘here’s the bit you’ve all been looking forward to – party reform’. Everyone laughed, expecting a lengthy section on why the union link needed to change. But it wasn’t particularly lengthy or enlightening. He said: ‘Now let me say to you – change is difficult and uncomfortable. Let me explain to you why it’s so

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Dr Miliband finally trusts his instincts and prescribes socialism to make Britain better

For three years, though we’ve been told all about who Ed Miliband is, we’ve often wondered whether we’re getting his real thoughts when he speaks. The Labour leader has often given the impression that he doesn’t trust his instincts, that he thinks that he should be speaking from the centre ground rather than as ‘Red Ed’, and that his forays into tougher welfare and immigration policies are things he’d rather not do. But today the Labour leader decided to embrace what he truly believes in: big government. Big socialist government. He announced price controls – ‘if we win the election in 2015 the next Labour government will freeze gas and

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: our verdict on Ed Miliband’s speech

James Forsyth says it’s the most left-wing speech he has heard from a political leader. Fraser Nelson thinks that socialism has now returned to British politics. Isabel Hardman thinks the plans for 200,000 new houses could be based on an error.  Our verdict of Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour Party conference is now in, with a special edition of our weekly podcast the View from 22 (below). You can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week, or you can use the embedded player below: listen to ‘View from 22 conference special: Red Ed is back’ on Audioboo

Matthew Sinclair

Ed Miliband’s energy announcement may be nonsense, but it could become popular

First politicians banned cheap energy. They are creating an affordability crisis by insisting on the rapid deployment of expensive technologies like offshore wind and by imposing endless green taxes. It is simply illegal to generate electricity at an affordable price with a modern, efficient coal and gas power plant, without bearing all of those other costs. Ed Miliband was one of the people who imposed those high costs on consumers, as the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the last government. Now his plan is to fix the situation by banning expensive energy too. The Government already decides which technologies are good – wind, solar, carbon capture

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Red Ed is bringing back populist socialism

‘Red Ed is back,’ said the Daily Mirror’s Kevin Mcguire, and it’s a fair summary of today’s speech. He has pledged to use state power to force the hand of property companies: “use it or lose it” he said, reviving the idea of compulsory purchases. His new flagship policy is imposing a 20-month price freeze on domestic energy prices, ordering private companies around. He won a standing ovation when he pledged to reverse the Conservative (and Tony Blair) liberal reforms of the NHS. Now, you can say a lot about Ed Miliband’s shortcomings but you can’t call him vacuous. He now has an identifiable mission: to bring back ‘socialism’, as

Sebastian Payne

Video: Ed Miliband’s plans to freeze energy prices

Labour have released an audio trailer which reveals the big announcement of Ed Miliband’s conference speech — energy prices will be frozen to 2017 under Labour plans: ‘How do you feel when you see your energy bill sitting at the front door? And you know its going to be even higher than the last one? And how do you feel when you read in the newspaper that your energy providers profits are up? Yet again. ‘Millions of ordinary families are struggling to keep up with bills. Bills that are rising faster than wages. Since David Cameron became Prime Minister, he’s allowed gas and electricity bills to rise by an average

Nick De Bois

The ghost of Gordon Brown stalks Ed Miliband’s dangerous business tax plans

Gordon Brown was notorious for complicating our already over-complicated tax system, and it seems that his former aide, Ed Miliband, wants to emulate the master. The danger is that Ed Miliband would do so against the backdrop of a vulnerable economy in a very mobile global market place. His latest idea is to put up corporation tax, arguing that this will “pay” for a freeze in business rates on small firms. In fact, the net burden on business will remain unchanged, so his tinkering would be little help to the small businesses that he allegedly wants to help. There are more devils in Miliband’s detail: the freeze would only apply

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ed Miliband’s give and take away business strategy

Far be it from anyone to criticise a party that wants to build more homes, but Ed Miliband’s plan to announce in his speech that Labour would build 200,000 new homes a year by 2020 isn’t a particularly interesting one. It’s not that it’s not a good idea to fix our broken housing market, but that politically it’s a reasonably predictable move. Which probably means it’s a good thing, and it certainly fits in with the party’s cost of living drive. But there is another policy being unveiled today that’s more interesting because it tells us something important about the way Labour relates to groups and organisations around it. Labour

Monday

Steerpike

Ed Miliband is no ladies-man

Labour is the only party for women; that was the message of its conference launch last weekend. Every step towards equality had been made by the red team, it was claimed. Of course there was no mention of Maggie, the first (and only) female PM. Indeed, the party had to overlook the fact that it has never even elected a female leader. Harriet Harman and Margaret Beckett have both been leader by default, before being replaced by the newly elected male leader. Speaking of which, Ed Miliband recently had Messrs Rawnsley and Helm of the Observer round to his house in Dartmouth Park for a natter. Katherine Rose, a freelance photographer (pictured, above), was with

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Thank Heavens for Godfrey Bloom

I was at a funeral on Friday and so late catching-up with the latest entertainment provided by UKIP. But, gosh, thank heavens for Godfrey Bloom. Not just because he and his ilk have injected some welcome craziness into British politics – the circus always needs new clowns – but because by doing so they have reminded us of the stakes involved. Bloom – last heard decrying aid squandered on feckless Bongo Bongo Land – one-upped himself with his talk of sluts who fail to clean their kitchens properly. Sure, there was something refreshing about hearing Nigel Farage admit all this amounted to a disaster for UKIP but the bigger point is that

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Exclusive: the moment Ed Miliband said he’ll bring socialism back to Downing Street

What’s Ed Miliband about? In a word: socialism. You can think this a good or a bad thing, but there ought to be no doubt about where he stands. At a Q&A in the Labour conference last night, he was challenged by an activist: When will you bring back socialism?’ ‘That’s what we are doing, sir’ Miliband replied, quick as a flash. ‘That’s what we are doing. It says on our party card: democratic socialism’. It was being filmed, and your baristas at Coffee House have tracked down the clip as an exclusive. This little exchange will perhaps tell you more about Ed Miliband and his agenda than much of the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Damian McBride shatters the Labour peace

If you want to know just how much anger Damian McBride’s book has created in the Labour party—and particularly its Blairite wing, just watch Alastair Campbell’s interview with Andrew Neil on The Sunday Politics. Campbell doesn’t scream or shout but the anger in his voice as he discusses McBride’s antics is palpable. He did not sound like a man inclined to forgive and forget. This whole row is, obviously, a massive conference distraction. Those close to Ed Miliband had hoped that this year, the Labour leader would get a free run at conference now that his brother has quite politics. But as one of his colleagues said to me late

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Ed Miliband’s seaside start

Ed Miliband’s interview on the Andrew Marr show neatly summed up the Labour leader’s problems in cutting through. Marr started with a series of questions about Miliband’s plans to change Labour’s relationship with the unions. This might be an important issue but it is hardly one of paramount interest to the electorate and every minute Miliband is speaking about this, he can’t be speaking about other things. The next distraction is the whole Damian McBride business. Indeed, Miliband telling Marr that he’d told Brown to sack McBride is the BBC News headline on the interview. Miliband also had to fend off a whole host of questions about why his poll

Saturday

James Forsyth

Three reasons why you can’t write off Ed Miliband

This is not the backdrop that Ed Miliband would have wanted for Labour conference. Labour’s poll lead has—according to YouGov—vanished, Damian McBride is dominating the news agenda and there’s talk of splits and division in this inner circle. But, as I say in the cover this week, you can’t write Ed Miliband off yet. He has three huge, structural advantages in his favour. The boundaries favour Labour: Type Thursday’s YouGov poll, the best for the Tories in 18 months, into UK Polling Report’s seat calculator, and it tells you that Labour would be three short of a majority on these numbers. It is a reminder that if the parties are

Thursday

Rod Liddle

Ed Miliband, a political genius? Pull the other one

Trouble is, I suppose, there’s so much space to fill these days, in the papers and on cyberspace, on your TV screens and on the wireless. And not filled with the same old stuff, but filled with something different. And so if you’re a columnist the pressure’s really on: what the hell is there that’s new to say? What attitude can I strike that would be different from what Aaronovitch had to say yesterday, but also different to what Heffer’s saying today? That’s the only explanation I can come to for three articles within a week saying what a bloody genius Ed Miliband is. There was Anthony Barnett in a