Ed miliband

Miliband tries to re-energise the Opposition

The Labour reshuffle is an attempt to bring more energy and aggression into Ed Miliband’s top team. It is also a recognition that the party has failed to cut through on public service reform, hence new shadows at both health and education. Chuka Umunna’s rapid promotion to shadow Business Secretary will, I suspect, dominate coverage of the reshuffle. Having been an MP for less than 18 months, Umunna now finds himself up against Vince Cable. If he succeeds in this role, he’ll rapidly become the leader in waiting. But there’s also a danger that it might all be too much, too soon for him. Umunna is one of five new

Healey and Denham depart the shadow Cabinet

John Healey and John Denham have resigned from the shadow Cabinet ahead of Ed Miliband’s reshuffle. Healey is, officially, departing for family reasons. But I doubt that many of those closest to Miliband will particularly mind his departure. I expect that Miliband may also take this chance to move Andy Burnham, who knows the health brief from his time in government and is an effective if one dimensional media performer, from education into the health brief. These two resignations free up a couple of the big shadow Cabinet jobs as Miliband prepares to shuffle his pack. It is almost certain that the Labour leader, who has just won himself complete

One Nation Dave

Jim Murphy’s tweeted verdict on David Cameron’s speech to the Tory conference seems accurate: Bits I saw seemed written by 4 different people in 4 different rooms and merged just in time to be fed into the autocue. Such is the fate of conference addresses and today’s was no different. This is a tired format in dire need of refreshing. A speech that was half as long but four times as concentrated would work better. Instead, there are the usual dreadful “jokes”, the usual attempt to cover far too much ground, the usual blather about British spirit or promise or greatness and the familiar flabby mess of a speech. But

Cameron wants to offer the “right” leadership

As flat as flat champagne — that’s the verdict on this year’s Tory conference, which is ironic given that the two year ban on champagne was lifted this year. Bruce Anderson argues that the dour atmosphere is intentional. These are serious times for sombre politics, not the frivolity occasioned by a conference at a seaside resort. David Cameron’s first objective, Bruce says, is to reassure the country and present himself as a leader for a crisis. Cameron’s conference speech has been widely trailed by most news outlets this morning. Tim Montgomerie has a comprehensive overview of the speech. Cameron’s first challenge is to emote: these are “anxious times” for ordinary

Osborne’s serenade

As James said, Osborne’s speech was a potent blend of economics and politics. One passage in particular stood out politically: when Osborne referred to those who booed when Ed Miliband mentioned Tony Blair during his speech. He said: ‘You know, there was a time when Labour seemed briefly to realise that to win elections it had to accommodate itself to the real world, stop being anti-business, make peace with middle Britain. Not now. It’s over. Once they cheered Tony Blair, now they boo him. I fought three elections against Tony Blair, and I know the damage he did to our country. But it wasn’t just him they were booing last

Hague does his leader’s bidding

William Hague’s speech to conference today wasn’t the barn-burner of years past. It did include some jabs at Balls and Miliband. Hague joked that “their shadow Chancellor was Gordon Brown’s right hand man. And their leader was right hand man to the right hand man.”  But the overall tone was serious. Politically, two things struck me as significant about the speech. First, Hague showed how determined the Tories are to play the Cameron card. The speech ended with a long tribute to the Prime Minister which called him “the leader for a better future”. The Tories are convinced that of the three party leaders, Cameron is the only one who

Cameron and Osborne respond to Miliband

Senior Tories are saying that there won’t be many attacks on Ed Miliband from the party’s big hitters at conference. They are concerned that aggressive assaults on him could win him public sympathy. But both Cameron and Osborne respond to one of the central arguments of Miliband’s speech in their pre-conference turns. Cameron writes in the Mail that ‘the role for government is not to single out good and bad industries, it’s to make it easy as possible for all industries, all businesses, to grow, invest and take people on.’ While as the Telegraph reports, Osborne ‘scorns Mr Miliband’s suggestion this week that the Government should distinguish between “producers” and

Ed Miliband, closet Glee fan?

  What to make of Ed Miliband’s disclosure yesterday that Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ is his favourite song? Ben Brogan smells a rat: “If he’s a Journey fan, then I’m a football expert”. But here’s the thing: you don’t have to be a Journey fan to like Don’t Stop Believin’. You just need to be a fan of Glee. For the uninitiated, Glee is an American musical TV series about (impossibly glamorous) nerds in an Ohio high school, who join an after-school music club and are intensely bullied by the cool, sporty kids in the school. But they stick to what they believe in, overcoming the bullies. Don’t Stop Believin’

Rehsuffle rumours

Those now leaving Liverpool are indulging in some shadow Cabinet reshuffle speculation. This chatter has been sparked both by the fact that Miliband has now abolished shadow Cabinet election and by how many of the media rounds in the past few days have been done by members of the 2010 intake notably Stella Creasy, Chuka Umanna and Rachel Reeves. Expect them to be in line for rapid promotion. To make way for them, some of the under-performing members of the shadow Cabinet will have to be sacked. One name touted as being in the frame is John Healey, the health spokesman. Healey has long infuriated some in the leader’s office

James Forsyth

Red flag at half-mast

Labour conference has now closed with the traditional singing of the Red Flag. Ed Miliband appeared to know all the words as he sang along as one wag put it, ‘you don’t grow up in the Miliband household without knowing all the words to the Red Flag.’ But what was really striking about the end of conference was how downbeat it was. As the delegates streamed out of the hall, the atmosphere was palpably flat. Harriet Harman declared in her closing speech that Labour are now done with statements of contrition about their record in office. She told the hall that: ‘…the two Eds both acknowledged – what we all

Miliband’s revealing Scottish gaffe

Ed Miliband can’t name the candidates for leader of the Scottish Labour Party. Miliband’s discomfort during his excruciating BBC interview is fairly amusing. But, as James Kirkup notes, the Scottish Labour Party is a serious issue. It is the only check on Alex Salmond, which makes it essential to the future of the union. And it’s important for Labour’s electoral recovery, not that you’d realise that listening to the senior party. As I revealed on Sunday, Labour shadow minister Ivan Lewis displayed extraordinary complacency about Scotland at a fringe event, implying that Labour will return to power in Holyrood as a matter of course, no effort required. Miliband’s ignorance only

Alex Massie

Ed Miliband Comes to Scotland

I suspect it can only be bad news for poor old Tom Harris that he’s the only candidate to lead Scottish Labour whose name Ed Miliband can a) remember and b) pronounce correctly: Another reminder that Scotland is already and semi-formally a semi-detached part of the United Kingdom.

Miliband meets the public, and a lot of Labour members

Ed Miliband has just finished an hour and twenty minute long question and answer session. The audience was meant to be a mix of the general public and Labour members, but there seemed to be far more Labour members than anybody else. It would be easy to take the Michael out of the whole event. The questioner who walked out as the Labour leader was trying to answer his question, Miliband’s tendency to stare into the bleachers with his hand above his eyes and the technical glitches. One could also, rightly, say that the vast majority of questions were classic lefty fare. But there was the glimmer of something important

Alex Massie

Miliband’s Message: Neoliberalism is Dead. But What Comes Next?

I know one isn’t supposed to say this but there was an idea somewhere in the middle of Ed Miliband’s confused speech to the Labour party conference. Unfortunately it was smothered by 4000 words of contradictory waffling that, accompanied by Miliband’s desperate delivery, made the whole thing almost unbearable. If the Labour leader lacks presence that can’t be helped, but nor was he assisted by the tired format of these conference addresses. That is something he could have done something about, so to speak. And the idea was simple: the neoliberal age has ended. He could, even should, have been clearer about this. Had he been so, his speech would

James Forsyth

Miliband’s three mistakes

Three things puzzled me about Ed Miliband’s conference speech yesterday. First, I didn’t understand why Miliband did not attack Cameron for having talked about the need for ‘moral capitalism’ and then have not delivered it. It would have been far harder for Miliband’s speech to be caricatured as left wing if he had pointed out that Cameron had promised ‘to place the market within a moral framework – even if that means standing up to companies who make life harder for parents and families’ – and then not delivered on that pledge. The second thing was the absence of any policy at all. Any shadow minister sent out to defend the

What Fleet Street made of Miliband’s speech

Ed Miliband has been across the airwaves this morning, explaining that the values outlined in his speech yesterday will inform Labour’s policy direction over the next four years – a statement that calls to mind a crude saying regarding Sherlock Holmes. He is doing this because most commentators agree that his speech was incoherent. Here is a selection of the reaction in this morning: The Times’ leading column (£): ‘Generally he did better with his attacks than with phrases that sought to describe his vision. His larger problem — that people have difficulty seeing him as prime minister — is unlikely to have been affected much by this performance.’ Matthew

Miliband v Clegg: now it’s personal

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: “Given what he is supporting, I think it is pretty hard to go into coalition with him.” 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. 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.

Labour turns up the heat on health reform

The exodus from Liverpool has begun, following Ed Miliband’s speech. This means that there will be scant coverage of the events that occur hereafter. Shadow Health Secretary John Healey recognised this and gave an interview to this morning’s Guardian in order to highlight the speech he will make tomorrow. Healey is clear, as Ed Miliband was earlier this afternoon, that the government’s NHS reforms are a costly disaster and betrayal of the British people. Healey adds that they also threaten David Cameron, who has made “promises he is now breaking”. It’s good political posturing on a ‘Home’ issue for Labour. There is no indication that Healey will say anything new

Fraser Nelson

Miliband VS Predator

You can see what Ed Miliband was trying to do. As his party isn’t trusted on the economy (his number one problem) he had to say how much he admires business. But, then again, his party is bankrolled by unions who dislike capitalists. So, Ed Miliband draws a dividing line: the ‘predator’ companies (bad) and companies like Rolls Royce, for example, and presumably small businesses (good). Here is the new narrative of his leadership: Miliband vs Predator, coming to a cinema near you. But just like Cameron’s ‘runaway dads’, the concept of a predator company is easier to talk about in the abstract than in real life. Just what is a bad company? Asset