ed miliband Archives

Sunday

3 May 2015

Will there be a late surge to the Tories?

So, here we are. In 100 hours time, we’ll be half-way through election-day. But at the moment, the polls still remain deadlocked. Yet, there remains a sense that there’ll be some kind of late shift towards the Tories. Is there any grounds for this? Well, I argue in the Mail on Sunday that there are a few things that point towards this. David Cameron has finally hit his stride. His performances have improved markedly and the public appear to have concluded that he clearly won last Thursday’s Question Time, YouGov have the public giving it to him 42% to Miliband’s 26%. As Tim Shipman points out, Cameron’s lead as preferred

Steerpike

Thick of It writer ridicules Ed Miliband’s 8ft ‘policy cenotaph’

Ed Miliband has woken up to ridicule this morning after the Guardian unveiled his latest election accessory. No longer content with his trusty lectern, the Labour leader has bizarrely commissioned an 8ft 6in stone inscription which bears Labour’s key election promises. Miliband plans to install this in the Downing Street Rose Garden if he succeeds in getting in to Number 10. Given that the Tories’ pledge to protect their tax cuts promise with a law was seen as a ‘last minute gimmick’, Labour have managed to take the phrase to new heights. In fact, Mr S thinks it all sounds a bit like a plot line from the BBC’s The Thick

Saturday

2 May 2015

Steerpike

Politicians deliver careful messages of congratulations for the royal baby

This morning the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a baby girl. The girl, who is the Queen’s fifth great-grandchild, is the fourth in line to the throne. As members of the public began to celebrate, the political leaders were quick to put out their own carefully worded messages of congratulations. With the election less than a week away, each leader must work out how to toe the party line on the monarchy, while not coming across as cold-hearted or too politically-minded. First out of the starting blocks was Nick Clegg who managed to mention both his constituency and his better half Miriam in his messages: Just behind him was ardent royalist David Cameron who offered a simple message,

Steerpike

Rupert Murdoch jets into London to see off Miliband

Ed Milband used his interview with Russell Brand as a chance to bash his arch-enemy Rupert Murdoch. The Labour leader claimed that the media mogul is ‘much less powerful than he used to be’. The disrespect is mutual: Murdoch has taken to Twitter to mock Miliband for queuing up to shake his hand at his annual summer party only days before he decided to play the Murdoch-slaying hard man. Well, Mr S sees that Miliband will soon have a chance to feel the full weight of Murdoch’s power as he has jetted into London ahead of next week’s election. While over here, Murdoch is expected to run a tight ship across all News

Friday

1 May 2015

Sebastian Payne

Election podcast special: six days to go

In today’s election podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and I discuss the most significant moments during the campaign this week. Did Ed Miliband’s interview with Russell Brand make any impact? Which moments of the Question Time special will be remembered? And what might happen one week today if the Conservatives are unable to form a government? You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer or iPhone every week, or you can use the player below:

Steerpike

Noel Gallagher: Ed Miliband is a f–king communist

Tony Blair once counted Noel Gallagher as one of New Labour’s key celebrity backers. However, under Ed Miliband’s leadership, Labour can rely on no such support from the musician. In an interview on Alan Carr’s Chatty Man, which airs tonight, the former Oasis member said he was unable to endorse any politician out of the current line-up: ‘I’m not sure I can get behind any of them at the minute. I dunno. The fact that Cameron didn’t turn up for the debate is a disgrace. I think that Miliband, if he gets in, is just going to fail us.’ And why would Miliband fail? ‘Because he is a f**king communist.’ Mr S suspects it’s

Steerpike

Who are the precocious producers of Milibae: The Movie?

Oh dear. Ed Miliband did not have a good run on Question Time last night. After he was grilled by the audience over Labour’s history with debt, even the most die-hard Milifan would have struggled to find any sex appeal in his trip as he hurried off the stage. However, Miliband fans are made of tough stuff and haven’t yet abandoned their leader in his hour of need. Instead, they have made an entire movie about him, which brings together highlights from the Milifan movement. Warning: contains disturbing images It’s unknown whether Milibae: The Movie will be rolled out for nationwide release. However, Mr S was most impressed by the video, which showed a rather precocious knowledge of politics. Perhaps the Milifans asked

Steerpike

Russell Brand says vote (but not for Ed Miliband)

At a recent screening of his new capitalism documentary the Emperor’s New Clothes, Russell Brand, the revolutionary who refuses to vote, said he was too angry to say nice things about today’s politicians: ‘When I watch it [the Emperor’s New Clothes], I sort of think come on Russell people really want to hear you say something about the election like Caroline Lucas is lovely, or Natalie Bennett is lovely, or Tom Watson is lovely or Ed Miliband is really trying his hardest, but when I watch this I think “nooo! Justice!”’ However just a week later and the comedian has changed his tune. After Ed Miliband paid a late-night visit to his

Sebastian Payne

Campaign kick-off: six days to go

By this time next week, the election will all be over and it will be a question of seats, leaderships and coalitions. With six days of campaigning left, today will be dominated by the fallout from last night’s Question Time special. David Cameron put in a good turn, Ed Miliband did not and Nick Clegg appeared to sail on through without much impact. To help guide you through the melée of stories and spin, here is a summary of today’s main election stories. 1. Miliband’s not sorry The special edition of Question Time last night with the three main party leaders was the best television of the campaign. Cameron, Miliband

Thursday

30 Apr 2015

Nigel Lawson

Diary – 30 April 2015

I have escaped this rather depressing election campaign by retreating to my home in la France profonde — to be precise, in Armagnac, in the heart of Gascony. My only outing, from which I have just returned, was a brief visit to New York, travelling there and back in the giant Airbus 380. The purpose of the trip was to drum up US support for the thinktank I founded in 2009, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, and its campaigning arm, the Global Warming Policy Forum, in the company of our outstanding director, Benny Peiser. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, the GWPF has a global reach, and its international

The Spectator

Barometer | 30 April 2015

One-way stretch A study at Louisville University in Kentucky concluded that collisions are twice as likely in one-way streets as in similar streets with two-way traffic. — The one-way street is an older concept than many might imagine. Pudding Lane, where the Great Fire of London began in 1666, was one of the world’s first one-way streets. An order restricting cart traffic to one-way travel on that and 16 other lanes around Thames Street was issued in 1617. — Data on traffic flow at the time is hard to come by, but the idea was not copied for over 300 years, until Mare Street, Hackney, became a one-way street in

Fraser Nelson

The truth about Labour and overspending

Ed Miliband’s worst moment in the Question Time debate came when he refused to accept that Labour had spent too much before the crash. The audience reacted with fury: how could he be trusted if he has yet to work out what he did wrong? This is toxic for him because his denial is completely genuine: he has convinced himself that the debt crisis is unconnected to what he got up to when serving in HM Treasury. listen to ‘Ed Miliband says Labour did not overspend in government’ on audioBoom

Sebastian Payne

Listen: The Spectator’s verdict on the Question Time leaders special

According to the snap poll, David Cameron has won the final TV ‘debate’ of the short campaign. In this View from 22 podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and I discussed the Question Time special this evening and how each of the party leaders performed. Was the audience more receptive to Ed Miliband or Cameron? Were there any major gaffs? Did Nick Clegg make much of an impact? And will it make any difference to the campaign? You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer or iPhone every week, or you can use the player below:

James Forsyth

Ed Miliband’s refusal to admit that Labour overspent could cost him dear

Tonight’s Question Time special with Cameron, Miliband and Clegg provided the best television of this campaign so far. A well-informed audience relentlessly pressed the three leaders on their weakest points. At the end of the evening, an ICM poll for the Guardian gave the evening to Cameron by 44 per cent to Miliband’s 38 per cent with Clegg garnering 19 per cent support. Miliband’s didn’t have a great night and his most awkward moment came on the record of the last Labour government. The audience were audibly irritated by his repeated refusal to concede that the last Labour government had spent too much money. Under questioning from the audience, Miliband

The Spectator

As it happened: Question Time leaders special

Welcome to the Spectator’s live coverage of the special edition of Question Time with David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg. We’ll be providing live analysis of the final TV programme with each of the party leaders from 8pm. This page will automatically reload.

Ed West

The cultural significance of Ed Miliband’s mockney accent

I’m mildly posh – nowhere near David Cameron posh, for example, let alone the Olympian heights of Brian Sewell, but I’m unlikely to ever play a football hooligan or an East End gangster in a Guy Ritchie film. And I’m better spoken than I was as a teenager, when I used to affect a slight Mockney accent with a mild Jafaican inflection, as is the case with most Londoners born after about 1976. Not as bad as some of my contemporaries, but enough to sound like a bit of a berk. One day, as our gang was walking down that notoriously deprived inner city street, Holland Park Avenue, I heard an

Isabel Hardman

A (partial) defence of the spin room

Tonight’s ‘Question Time’-style TV debates will be followed by what has become probably the most hated aspect of this rather uninspiring general election campaign: the spin room. This spectacle of journalists interviewing journalists as they listen to frontbenchers from all the parties parroting lines about how their leader was the best (or, in the Tory case, how well Nicola Sturgeon has been doing) is odd enough inside the room, let alone for those watching at home. The way the politicians spinning talk is even less natural than usual: it’s like a Westminster version of Made In Chelsea, stuffed with people acting at being actors. And yet there is a reason

Carola Binney

Young people want a future, not freebies

Ed Miliband wants the youth vote enough to have spent an evening with Russell Brand earlier this week. My generation could decide the election next Thursday, and politicians seem to think there are two ways to win young voters’ hearts: celebrity endorsement and self-interest. The battle for the youth vote has hinged around promising to save us money. Now they’re done bickering about tuition fees, the party leaders are busy telling students how we would personally benefit from their governments: Labour would ban unpaid internships, the Tories would help us buy our first homes and the Lib Dems would cut our bus fares by two-thirds. But when it comes to

James Forsyth

Cameron needs to keep the momentum going in tonight’s Question Time

Tonight’s Question Time is, probably, the most important TV event of the campaign. The fact that it is on BBC1 in prime time means that it is likely to attract a bigger audience than the previous debates. That it is on the BBC also means that any newsworthy moments will be pumped out across the BBC’s entire network from local radio to the world wide web. But what really makes tonight so important is how many undecided voters there still are. Today’s Mail poll has 40% of those going to vote saying that they are either undecided or might yet change their mind. The parties seem to agree that around

Steerpike

Question Time: Will Ed Miliband take his lectern with him?

With Ed Miliband’s expensive election guru David Axelrod rarely spied at the Labour leader’s side, Miliband has found a new pillar of strength to get him through the campaign. Rarely a day goes by without Miliband being pictured next to a lectern: Apparently his party believes that the lectern helps voters imagine him as Prime Minister. So you can imagine Steerpike’s concern upon seeing a photo of the set for tonight’s Question Time Election Leaders special. The picture, snapped by BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins, shows only one lectern: Since David Dimbleby will most likely have dibs on it, this begs the question: how will Miliband cope without his comfort lectern? Perhaps the venue has a BYOL* policy? Mr S has contacted a Labour spokesman to check whether Miliband will