'Oh, so that's who Richard Morris is..." Lord Hattersley on The Daily Politics
'An influential activist' - The Guardian
'Iain Dale, without the self loathing' - Matthew Fox in The New Statesman
'You are a tinker...' - Tim Farron
'An influential activist' - The Guardian
'Iain Dale, without the self loathing' - Matthew Fox in The New Statesman
'You are a tinker...' - Tim Farron
Tuesday 28 June 2011
How come David Miliband has a better grasp of our problems than Nick's mates?
Thanks to Paul Walter (@paulwalteruk) for posting David Miliband's speech in The House in favour of Lord's Reform. It's a corker and well worth a read. I suspect there will be a few members of the Labour Party reading it with their heads in their hands, wondering if they picked the right brother.
However, when you read it, you'll notice that he spends some little time at the start giving Nick a right old kicking. As per my post yesterday, It would seem the elder Miliband understands well that our unpopularity has little to do with our association with the Tories (as the papers were quoting friends of Nick saying this weekend), and rather more to do with our own actions.
To quote him in The House:
'When the right hon. Gentleman said before the election that he wanted to unite the nation, he could scarcely have imagined that people of all shades of opinion would come together so quickly to agree that he is not a very lovable rogue.'
Ouch.
Now this isn't a 'let's kick Nick' post (nor a 'let's kick Nick out' post). It's a plea to stop pretending that it's the Tories fault that we're so unpopular (although the farcical 'not a cigarette paper between us' approach to coalition government certainly didn't help) and face up to the fact that it's our mess and our responsibility - and start enacting a plan of attack to put things right.
Addendum
Great piece here about how we might start putting things right...
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Yes and no! David Miliband is just so far away from any position of responsibility right now - he's functioning as a mere commentator. Clegg has the hardest job in politics, and I thought it showed great weakness from Miliband to have a cheesy grin at Clegg from such a safe distance.
ReplyDeleteOnly perhaps convicted child killers have had a less partial press than Clegg by people who have something to lose if he succeeds - let's not forget that!
Thanks - while I agree with much of what you say, I do think we fool ourselves if we just blame the press (or the Tories. people genuinely feel betrayed by us - and we need to do something about it. And quick!
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