Media Activist Jay Baker's blog

Tracking the barely-noted progressive arguments put forward by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.

“There will be some people who say this is all too radical, let’s just carry on as we are. I say we can’t carry on as we are. We can’t carry on as we are, two nations not one; the banks and the rest of Britain. We must have a One Nation banking system as part of a One Nation economy.”

In this long-awaited run-down of What Ed Said the last several weeks, we find Miliband talking about people getting rich the right way, taxing the bankers, and, of course, delivering a speech at the Labour Party conference…

After the New Labour brand portrayed a party at ease with the “filthy rich,” Ed was asked if he felt that was okay:  “Yes, if you make it the hard way,” he said. “It’s not for me to pass moral judgment.” (The Guardian)

Continuing to distance Labour from an old regime that did little to stop the bankers running amok following Thatcher’s Big Bang in the 1980s, Miliband vowed to tax their bonuses to raise £2billion while bringing back the 50p tax rate: “Next April, David Cameron will be writing a cheque to each and every millionaire in Britain for £40,000,” he said, referring to the Tory tax cuts for the rich. “If I was in government tomorrow, one change I would make in relation to the better off…we wouldn’t be cutting the top rate of income tax from 50 to 45p. If there was an election tomorrow that is what we would do.” Challenged about the cuts as he’s about to join a union-led anti-cuts rally in London on Saturday, he clarified, “Yes, there would be cuts if we were in government but if you make the pace of those cuts slower, if you take less money out of the economy now, it would be better for the economy, better for growth. Our answer is not, as this Government is doing, borrowing to keep people idle. Let’s get people back to work.” (The Telegraph)

One way to get people working, the Labour leader suggested, was with “green industrial revolution”: “Investing in the infrastructure for a low carbon economy will both kick start the growth that is missing and make our economy resilient to price shocks in an age of scarcity.” The former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change went on: “It is governments which set the low carbon targets and correct market failures; and the degree of support for policies shown by governments is a major part of perceived risk for investors. To attract the investment we need, governments must cover that risk and commit to a clear goal of decarbonising the power sector by 2030, as the independent Committee on Climate Change has recommended.” (Press Association)

Unveiling his plan for “predistribution” based on progressive theories, Ed explained: “The redistribution of the last Labour government relied on revenue, at least in part – which the next Labour government will not enjoy. The option of simply increasing tax credits, for example, in the way we did before, will not be open to us.” He elaborated: “Of course, redistribution will always remain necessary and I continue to believe that, but we have learned we have got to do more. And fiscal circumstances will make it harder, not easier.” Clarifying what he meant by “predistribution,” Miliband said: “(It’s) about saying, ‘We cannot allow ourselves to be stuck with permanently being a low-wage economy and hope that through taxes and benefits we can make up the shortfall.’ It’s not just, nor does it enable us to pay our way in the world. Our aim must be to transform our economy so it is a much higher skill, much higher wage economy. Think about somebody working in a call centre, a supermarket, or in an old peoples’ home. Redistribution offers a top-up to their wages. Predistribution seeks to go further – higher skills with higher wages.” (BBC)

After the events of April 15th, 1989, at the Hillsborough stadium here in Sheffield, which resulted in the deaths of 96 people, there has been a track record of shame that’s staggering even by The Sun’s standards, its then-editor Kelvin MacKenzie racing to demonise soccer fans from the historically progressive city of Liverpool, basing comments on bigoted Tory Irvine Patnick, then representing Hallam where Nick Clegg retains his seat, and who famously branded the rest of Sheffield “The People’s Republic of South Yorkshire.” And so, continuing his war on Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, Ed Miliband pulled no punches as more details of the disaster continue to come to light: “The people of Liverpool were systematically smeared and portrayed as its perpetrators,” telling Prime Minister David Cameron “Just as you have apologised on behalf of the Government, and so too have Sheffield Wednesday on behalf of Hillsborough, the same should be forthcoming from all those who wronged the victims, families and supporters, including in the media, particularly The Sun newspaper.” (The Mirror)

And, of course, last but not least, there was Ed’s conference speech, the entire transcript of which is available online, and in which he set out his vision, adding: “There will be some people who say this is all too radical, let’s just carry on as we are. I say we can’t carry on as we are. We can’t carry on as we are, two nations not one; the banks and the rest of Britain. We must have a One Nation banking system as part of a One Nation economy.” Talking about the Tory NHS reforms that opened it up to back-door privatisation, he said: “Remember before the last election, remember those airbrushed posters? ‘I’ll protect the NHS’ with that picture of David Cameron. Remember those speeches? The three most important letters to me, he said, were N-H-S. It was a solemn contract with the British people. And then what did he do? He came along after the election and proposed a top-down reorganisation that nobody voted for, that nobody knew about and nobody wanted. And here’s the worst part. When it became unpopular he paused. Remember the pause? He said he wanted to listen, and what happened? The GPs said no. The nurses said no. The paediatricians said no. The radiologists said no. The patients said no. And the British people said no. And what did he do? He ploughed on regardless. He broke his solemn contract with the British people, a contract that can never be repaired.” After going on to detail what he hated the most about Cameron’s reforms, he stated: “Let me be clear: the next Labour government will end the free market experiment, it will put the right principles back at the heart of the NHS and it will repeal the NHS Bill.”

However, you might have missed much of this sort of thing, because of the likes of the Daily Mail showing a snap of Ed with his hands on his chest as he met with some young females – teehee! That’s headline news!

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Tracking the barely-noted progressive arguments put forward by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.

“To have an effective immigration policy, we must also reform how our economy works so that it works for all working people in Britain, whoever they are and wherever they come from. That means tougher labour standards to do more to protect working people from their wages and conditions being undermined.”

In the latest installment we find that Ed’s recently been talking about our “tainted” Prime Minister, and the old guard of the 1%, Rupert Murdoch being too powerful, and, yes, the immigration issue rearing its ugly head again…

Speaking at Labour’s National Policy Forum, Miliband claimed Cameron is, “a prime minister who sent the texts…received the texts (and) even rode the horse,” referring to his involvement with former News International chief Rebekah Brooks and her boss Rupert Murdoch. “That’s why we have a tainted prime minister,” he added. “Tainted because he stands up for the wrong people, like Andy Coulson and Jeremy Hunt. Tainted because he does not stand up to the rich and powerful. And I’m not just talking about Rupert Murdoch. Tainted because he cannot be the change this country needs. And he even seems to believe that ‘we’re all in it together’ means country suppers with Rebekah Brooks.” In contrast to this regime, Ed said Labour would work for everyone, “not just a powerful and privileged few.” Attacking the Tories further, he claimed “They are stuck with an approach to our country’s economy, society and politics that simply does not work anymore: a set of orthodoxies whose time is over, which are now crumbling before our eyes. The Tories stand up for the wrong people; they run our country with the wrong ideas; they are both out of touch and out of date.” (The BBC)

Continuing this theme of outing the outdated posh boys, he told interviewer Jane Merrick: “When you look at Cameron, he represents the last gasp of the old. It has become much clearer now, in relation to the way he’s thinking about the economy, that he looks like somebody who’s beached. I don’t think that’s wishful thinking. I think that’s a reality. I think the British people are pretty generous. I think they thought, ‘let’s give him the benefit of the doubt’; now they’re thinking, ‘well you promised change and things are getting worse, not better’.” (The Independent)

Miliband told the Leveson Inquiry that politicians seek closeness with media giants to get a “good hearing” but Murdoch’s corporation was too powerful. “Organisations like News International had huge power and I think politicians were reticent to speak about some of these practices that were exposed. I include myself in that. There came a moment when I found it impossible not to speak out. I knew at that moment I was crossing a rubicon, because this would be seen by (News International) as pretty much an act of war. I think in retrospect I would prefer if I had said more earlier,” said Ed. “At the very starting point of this, I don’t believe that one person should continue to control 37% – or now 34% post the Sun on Sunday – of the newspaper market. My strong instinct is that is too much.” (The BBC)

On immigration, Miliband said: “To have an effective immigration policy, we must also reform how our economy works so that it works for all working people in Britain, whoever they are and wherever they come from. That means tougher labour standards to do more to protect working people from their wages and conditions being undermined.” Having successfully avoided talk of big brother border controls thrown around constantly under New Labour, Ed was praised by many who actually heard the speech or read its transcript for shifting it to real working issues around the labour market and low wages, calling for fines to be “at least doubled” on those who breach the minimum wage. (Liberal Conspiracy)

Of course, you may have missed that, because both the right and the radical left were busy portraying Ed as “tough on immigrants” to try and dignify their own narratives.

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Tracking the barely-noted progressive arguments put forward by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.

“We have a Budget for millionaires while millions are forced to pay more. We have families being squeezed while bankers still get their bonuses. And we have more than one million young unemployed while the government just shrugs its shoulders. We know where this government’s priorities lie: for the rich and powerful. We saw it in the Budget. We see it in their dealings with Rupert Murdoch.”

It’s been a busy several weeks for anyone involved in British party politics. Let’s catch up on what Ed said along the way, including calls for cheaper electricity, defending nurses while accusing the Prime Minister of “vandalising” the NHS, believing the local elections showed Labour are winning the public’s trust, plans with newly-elected French president Francois Hollande, and claiming the Queen’s Speech offered “no change, no hope”…

One major event for Ed was, of course, Labour’s success in the local elections. “I want to thank everyone who voted Labour at the local elections. I want to thank them for placing their trust in us,” he said. “But I also want to say something to those people who voted for other parties and to the many people who did not vote at all. I am determined to work tirelessly in the coming years up to the next general election to show we can change this country so it works for you, so it works for your son or daughter who is looking for a job, so it can deal with the squeeze on living standards, and, above all, so Britain changes from a country that works (for) a few people at the top to a country that works for everybody.” (The Independent)

Meanwhile, across the Channel, France saw the election of its first socialist President in 17 years – with Francois Hollande sharing Ed’s wish to tilt Europe away from austerity measures. “I think it’s a significant moment,” said Miliband. “What does the Left have to prove across Europe and indeed in Britain? That we are the people who can work well in the tough times as well as in the easier times. That’s what he is trying to show in France, and that is what we are trying to show here. There are always going to be difficult decisions that you have to make. But the question is, is Europe going to grow, is Britain going to grow, or are we just going to be stuck in recession, flat-lining economy and austerity?” Describing his relationship with Hollande as “warm,” Miliband also said: “We talked about growth and austerity in Europe and how we can tilt the direction of where Europe is going. I think that’s important. We talked a lot about young people. I talked about this promise in Britain that the next generation does better than the last. He has talked a lot about an intergenerational contract. It was a big thing in his victory speech, how he can stand up for young people.” (The Telegraph)

Ed’s ongoing theme of standing up for young people continued, saying, “I believe in expanding access to higher education, but the question we must all answer is what happens to those who don’t go to university? Social mobility must not be just about changing the odds that young people from poor backgrounds will make it to university. That really matters, but we also have to improve opportunities for everyone, including those who don’t go to university. We must reject the snobbery that says the only route to social mobility runs through University, as if only one kind of pathway to success matters.” (Politics.co.uk)

Miliband continues to talk about the injustice of the current economy in Britain: “We have a Budget for millionaires while millions are forced to pay more. We have families being squeezed while bankers still get their bonuses. And we have more than one million young unemployed while the government just shrugs its shoulders. We know where this government’s priorities lie: for the rich and powerful. We saw it in the Budget. We see it in their dealings with Rupert Murdoch.” Speaking about Labour’s impact at the local elections, Ed said: “These elections matter because Labour is campaigning for a very different set of priorities. Throughout the country, Labour is showing that we can make different choices, decisions which help people through these tough times. Different choices to create jobs, cut electricity bills, halt fare increases, tax bankers and halt the raid on pensioners’ incomes. Labour stands for the people who don’t get special access, or favours. We stand for the young people looking for work, the people whose living standards are squeezed, the pensioners seeing their taxes going up.” (BBC)

Speaking of electricity bills, I’d tweeted this week about how the government’s reforms will increase family electricity bills, and it’s something Ed was quick to speak about as well, making plans that: “might involve working with, or emulating what 38 degrees and Which? magazine are trying to do, which is to sign up people to bulk buy energy from the energy companies,” he said. “We are thinking of going to the energy companies as the Labour Party so that ‘responsible capitalism’ is not just an idea, but something practical. We think we may be able to deliver it through our grassroots network.” (The Guardian)

As the Tories enjoyed their successful opening up of the NHS to privatisation, Miliband told the Royal College of Nursing: ”The Government have been acting like they are the masters, not the servants, of the NHS. They are not the masters. Not this government. Not any government. Our health service is owned by patients, professionals and the people. And their voice – your voice – deserves to be heard.” He continued, “I can’t promise that we will always agree about everything. But what I will never do is what this Government did: dismiss you as just a ‘vested interest’. You are not. You are the defenders of the health service. I want to start working with you now to protect the values of the NHS and to hold the Government to account for what’s going on. You are not just on the frontline in our NHS. You are the first line in the defence of our NHS.” (The Telegraph)

Speaking in Wales, Ed continued attacking the Tories on their NHS reforms: “The thing I always think about David Cameron and the NHS is that he is not in a position to give anyone advice on the National Health Service, because frankly what he has done to the NHS in England is a piece of vandalism. The way it is with the top-down reorganisation has been incredibly destructive and people in the NHS are already feeling how tough it is.” (Wales Online)

If there’s one thing besides the NHS that Ed’s focused on, it’s the Tories and Rupert Murdoch. With Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s questionable relationship with Murdoch’s News Corporation, breaching the ministerial code yet remaining in the cabinet, Miliband has said, “It is a pattern with this Prime Minister, particularly around News International… He resists the calls for change.” (The Telegraph)

Miliband also criticised Tory bills unveiled in the Queen’s Speech, saying, “For a young person looking for work, the speech offers nothing. For a family whose living standards are being squeezed, this speech offers nothing. For the millions of people who think the government isn’t on their side, this speech offers nothing,” adding that the Tories created “the worst unemployment for 16 years, a million young people out of work and the first double-dip recession for 37 years” after “they promised recovery but delivered recession – a recession made in Downing Street. They have failed. No change, no hope – that is the real message of this Queen’s speech.” (The Guardian)

But – yes! – you may have missed these remarks, because Murdoch’s Sun were busy highlighting the fact one person landed an egg on Miliband’s shoulder in Southampton. Ed’s response? “Obviously not one of my fans.”

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Tracking the barely-noted progressive arguments put forward by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.

“Let’s take the big money out of politics. I hope Nick Clegg and David Cameron will come forward with their own proposals that say: ‘We’re willing to take a bit of pain too; we are willing to make changes which will make things harder for our political party but it’s in the interests of our democracy’.”

In this edition of What Ed Said recently, we find Miliband making bold promises about the Tories, vowing to defend ordinary people, and calling the bluff of those criticising him for the usual “union barons” link…

With Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron in the comfortable position of making first moves on the political chess board, Miliband has matched him move-for-move, with the cash-for-access scandal covered in the last installment of What Ed Said here prompting the Tory leader to publish the names of major party donors he has entertained, putting the pressure on Ed to do the same.

As it happened, Miliband outmaneuvered him: Cameron’s list only included those donating more than £50,000 to his party, whereas Ed included on his own lists anyone giving as low as £7,500. The odious Baroness Warsi – the Tories’ terrier on issues related to workers’ rights – was immediately wheeled out to minimise the damage, claiming the prominence of unions on the Labour list showed that the party “is the political wing of ‘Red’ Len McCluskey’s Unite trade union.” We can only assume she didn’t want to make it an economic recession-era pissing contest of who funds which party: bosses, or workers. And it’s no shock that Ed’s party will have links to organised workers, since they’re called the Labour Party. (The Guardian) “It’s not just that working people founded the Labour Party,” said Ed, “but they keep us rooted in those communities now.” (BBC)

It is in this context that Ed has continued his talk of, essentially, representing the 99%. In a speech to activists in Birmingham, Miliband said: “Labour is changing so that we can change the country. This Government has abandoned the pretence that they can govern for the whole country. They have betrayed middle Britain. They are spending their time listening to their donors, the people who give millions of pounds to the Conservative Party, cutting taxes for millionaires, not the millions of people of this country.” He added, “We are determined to govern for the whole country, not just the wealthy few. They are the values that the people of Britain demand.” (The Independent)

With that, and in light of the party donations scandals while Occupy protesters are calling to take money out of politics, Ed boldly suggested that all party donations be capped at £5,000. The Tories dismissed the whole suggestion. (The Guardian) The Telegraph then moved into action, quickly claiming that the “£5,000 cap on political donations…would hurt the Conservatives three times more than Labour” echoing Warsi’s cries against the removal of corporate interests when workers’ unions working under those interests would apparently still retain influence (God forbid). Nice enough move by the elitists there. Ed’s response? “All political leaders are going to have to make difficult decisions on this,” he began. “When I talk about a £5,000 donation cap it has got to apply to donations from the trade unions. (Their) large donations would no longer happen under this system. It does need to be a comprehensive reform. I am not making a unilateral act.”

Ouch. Not what the Tories wanted to hear – he was calling their bluff. “Let’s take the big money out of politics,” continued Ed. “I hope Nick Clegg and David Cameron will come forward with their own proposals that say: ‘We’re willing to take a bit of pain too; we are willing to make changes which will make things harder for our political party but it’s in the interests of our democracy’.” (The Independent)

As we know, Labour’s massive battle to save the NHS as we know it failed: the Health and Social Care bill went through, carried by the Liberal Democrats towards the gates that opened up all kinds of privatisation possibilities like a Conservative wet dream, remaining as it did the stuff of fantasies even under Margaret Thatcher. The next battlefield takes place all across the country in various communities represented by council elections – and this is where Miliband feels the fight can still salvage something. “I think that Labour councils are now the last line of defence against this bill and they have got to use the public health and well-being boards as a way of trying to prevent the worst aspects of this bill,” said Ed. “Of course, comply with legislation because the legislation has passed. But I think there is an opportunity for Labour councils to stand up for the right principles not the wrong principles in our NHS.” (The Guardian)

Speaking of elections, the Bradford by-election result was reported as a disaster for Labour due to the victory from perennial underdog George Galloway, the anti-war outcast booted from Labour under Tony Blair’s New Labour regime for his controversial views, but put into perspective it’s not such a big deal, especially compared to the local elections. Ed called it “a very bad result but there is a big picture about where politics is and I think people will look back on the last few weeks and say, ‘that was when the Cameron project hit the buffers and this was when Labour had their chance’.” He went on: “Opposition is a long and difficult haul. It is going to be a one-term haul, I am confident about that.” (The Guardian)

Of course, as always, you could be forgiven for missing quotes such as these – because the likes of the Telegraph were busy pointing out that Ed Miliband met with rich people from the City, just as he met with Rupert Murdoch as part of his role in the Opposition. We can only assume they frown as much when David Cameron and his cronies do the same to generate all those generous donations for themselves, giving private functions in return.

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Tracking the barely-noted progressive arguments put forward by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.

“No young person should be left languishing on the dole for a year, two years, three years. It is not the Britain I believe in, it is not the Britain you believe in, and it is not the Britain we would have under a Labour government. And that’s why my ambition is this: to conquer long-term youth unemployment. The first line of a Labour Budget would be a tax on bank bonuses to get young people into work.”

In this installment of “What Ed Said” recently, Miliband speaks out on Conservative corruption, calls their treasury plans a “millionaire’s budget,” attacks Tory economic strategy, and reiterates his vision to tax bank bonuses to fund young people’s job placements…

The Conservatives are, as I’ve outlined here before in some detail, using deficit reduction as a veil for their privatisation ideology. After stopping at just selling off the likes of British Airways, British Rail, British Telecom, and British Gas under Thatcher, the Tories now have their sights set on the NHS, universities, the roads, the police, and even access to the Prime Minister himself, making us wonder if they will actually decide to float the entire country of Britain on the FTSE100.

Peter Cruddas, former co-Treasurer for the Tories, allegedly implied to party donors that for the right price, they could win the attention of David Cameron. “It’s no way to run a government or a political party,” said Ed. “There needs to be a proper, independent investigation on what influence was sought, what influence was gained and what impact it had.” (The Telegraph)

Despite the Tory love of Social Darwinism where greed is good, the British public were apparently expected to swallow the release of their budget as though it was going to stray away from such an ideology. But funnier than that, the budget didn’t even attempt to hide the Tories’ loyalties: while on one hand they’re still talking about the deficit as though it’s bigger than anything we’ve ever known when in fact it’s pretty minor in historical terms, they’ve now on the other hand shamelessly released their budget that gives tax breaks for the rich!

Ed repeated his recent suggestion that Cameron represents the 1%, as cuts to child benefit and tax credits went ahead while “an income tax cut for the richest 1 per cent” is made. In the House of Commons, Miliband pointed the finger at the cabinet of over a dozen millionaires opposite him, urging them to ‘fess up by raising their hands if they were going to personally benefit from the budget: “Just nod if you’re going to benefit from it, or shake your head if you’re not. Come on – we’ve got plenty of time!” Calling Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg a “hapless accomplice,” he accused the Deputy Prime Minister of going from “following Lloyd George to following George Osborne.” (Belfast Telegraph)

With the budget released, Ed’s been on the attack, saying Osborne had no “compelling vision” for the economy, and urging a change to the Tories’ deficit reduction plans. “It’s not working for the people of this country,” Miliband said, while calling for growth with an emphasis on training, and industry. (BBC)

This goes hand in hand with his idea to tax bankers’ bonuses to fund strategies that get young people into work at a time when youth unemployment figures are frightening. “No young person should be left languishing on the dole for a year, two years, three years,” said Ed. “It is not the Britain I believe in, it is not the Britain you believe in, and it is not the Britain we would have under a Labour government. And that’s why my ambition is this: to conquer long-term youth unemployment. The first line of a Labour Budget would be a tax on bank bonuses to get young people into work.” (The Independent)

However, you may have missed much of these statements, because the likes of the Daily Mail were busy reporting on the break in at Ed’s office.

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Tracking the barely-noted progressive arguments put forward by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.

“It is patriotic to have an active government using all the means at its disposal to give competitive British firms every chance to succeed. That patriotism should be rooted in our knowledge that British firms can and do compete with the best in the world, in the belief that they deserve our backing, and in supporting fair competition so that British firms can make it on to the pitch to compete in the first place.”

In this installment of “What Ed Said” the last few days, we find Miliband calling for a patriotic resurgence in British manufacturing in the Thatcher-induced post-industrial era…

It seems strange to call for a renewed sense of pride in British production, since when you travel the world, citizens of other countries remind you that Britain no longer produces much, just consumes. This is, as I’ve written here before, a result of not just post-war capitalism, but also Thatcherism that sought to replace citizens with consumers. Part of this – as Thatcher decimated industries that had strong unions – was exemplified by the transition from coalmines to call centres in South Yorkshire, chosen for its trustworthy accent.

It is in this area, of course, that Ed Miliband is MP – in my birthplace of Doncaster. In a speech to the EEF, he expressed a desire for a comeback of the British manufacturing industry: “We should not be embarrassed about the need for more patriotism in our economic policy,” he said. “It is patriotic to have an active government using all the means at its disposal to give competitive British firms every chance to succeed. That patriotism should be rooted in our knowledge that British firms can and do compete with the best in the world, in the belief that they deserve our backing, and in supporting fair competition so that British firms can make it on to the pitch to compete in the first place. There are three words we don’t hear enough, or see enough. Those three words are ‘Made in Britain’.” But he warned against protectionism as “what governments reach for when they don’t believe firms can compete.” And he wasn’t just talking about factories, either – calling for “pride and patriotism – infusing everything from government to culture – if British business is to succeed.” (BBC)

Unfortunately, almost every major media outlet (including the BBC within their EEF report above) switched attention to a Radio 5 phone-in where callers were brought onto the air by the producers to attack the Labour leader (callers are almost always asked by the station what their angle will be before being forwarded onto the air). You will be forgiven for failing to recall this kind of airing of abuse at Tony Blair while an overwhelming majority of the British public were vehemently opposed to the invasion of Iraq.

So, you may have missed the crux of Ed’s not insignificant “Made in Britain” speech, because everyone from the Telegraph to the Daily Mail (and, yes, The Guardian, in addition to the BBC themselves) amplified these critical calls on a random radio show and framed them in the narrative of supposedly reflecting ordinary neutral voters – something the polls show is not the case.

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Tracking the barely-noted progressive arguments put forward by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.

“People thought it was beyond belief that Mr Murdoch could continue with his takeover after these revelations.”

In the second installment of “What Ed Said” in the last week or so, we find Miliband continuing to lead the way on Leveson Inquiry issues, still defending the NHS or “socialised health care system,” and meeting with France’s socialist candidate François Hollande…

After the Leveson Inquiry into press practices following the Rupert Murdoch-owned News International hacking scandal, Education secretary Michael Gove had the audacity to suggest there were already sufficient laws in place to deal with “rogue reporters” (who had, in fact, apparently been operating directly under the nose of James Murdoch), undermining the investigation. At last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, Ed challenged Prime Minister David Cameron to distance himself from Michael Gove in the wake of his asinine remark that the Leveson Inquiry had a “chilling” effect on press freedom. In response, Cameron simply delivered a standard line about the support he and Gove had for the investigation, which arguably wouldn’t have enjoyed so much momentum had it not been for Miliband’s relentlessness on the issue. As a result of Ed’s challenge, Gove was described as blushing “like a scolded child.” (New Statesman)

Meanwhile, Ed spent much of his week blasting the Liberal Democrat Yes Men who have decided to support the NHS privatisation “reforms.”  When he accused Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg of sitting on the fence on the NHS bill, Clegg actually admitted, “I support it.” Ed exclaimed, “He supports it!” – exposing the LibDems further as enablers for the Tory machine that’s running roughshod over Britain. (The Independent)

Ed had, of course, brought up the frightening NHS reforms proposed by the Conservatives at least three weeks in a row at Prime Minister’s Questions, and as I reported here last time, ridiculed Cameron’s Downing Street “summit” on the proposals that excluded “the GPs, the nurses, the midwives, the pathologists, the psychiatrists, the physiotherapists and, just for good measure, the radiologists.” Cameron’s response, after Ed had been interrupted and stopped from speaking numerous times, included the joke, “Any longer and I think we would have to put him on a waiting list for care.” (Telegraph)

Cameron’s already-damaging, out-of-touch public schoolboy persona has only been amplified by his performances in the House recently, sneering, smirking, and sniffing disdainfully even more than usual, and this week the rich Prime Minister countered a question from Dame Joan Ruddock on the shame of removing disability benefits by not only denying it through semantics, but playing the card that he has a child of his own with cerebral palsy and has filled out forms – despite the fact he’ll never personally have to worry about lacking money to have his child cared for. It’s ironic, then, that even staunch right-wing Tory Norman Tebbit – whose own wife has two carers, since her injuries sustained in the Brighton IRA attack – opposes Cameron’s NHS reform plans. So personal stories aren’t always solid, and don’t always work. Cameron also failed to answer a direct question on personal debt, posed to him by my very own MP, Paul Blomfield, which made me realise why they call it “Prime Minister’s Questions,” and not “Prime Minister’s Answers.”

Miliband offered a different personal example to Cameron: of a delivery driver who works twenty hours a week so will lose tax credits under Cameron’s plans. The perception that Cameron isn’t very likeable was again emphasised when he essentially blamed the driver for complaining instead of supporting all the cuts his government are making. When Ed said this is why people don’t believe the Tory spin that “we’re all in this together,” he added an accusation that the Prime Minister has broken promises, which he didn’t deny. (The Guardian)

And, of course, Ed met with François Hollande, who has said that the financial world has “gone mad,” and promised to regulate it, which prompted Ed to praise his French counterpart for his “leadership, energy and dynamism” on the issue. (The Guardian)

As always, you may miss such reports as these, because much of the media was busy drawing attention to “union barons” calling for protests during the Olympics, and Ed’s criticism of this in order to yet again distance himself from the unions and his “Red Ed” tag.

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Tracking the barely-noted progressive arguments put forward by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.

“If you can’t look ordinary workers in the eye and justify your salary and bonus, you shouldn’t be getting the salary or bonus.”

In my first installment of “What Ed Said” in recent days – and in a week where Labour repositioned themselves on public sector pay freezes – we find Ed standing up for working people and defending the NHS…

Miliband told his Welsh conference delegates that he’d like to introduce bankers to a young girl he met a few miles from the City of London who couldn’t find employment apart from an offer to work in a fish-and-chip shop for less than minimum wage, calling for a “responsible capitalism” where a Labour government would insist on companies taking on apprentices whenever they received a state contract, and putting ordinary workers on remuneration committees: “If you can’t look ordinary workers in the eye and justify your salary and bonus,” he said, “you shouldn’t be getting the salary or bonus.” (BBC) He also declared his desire to “tax the bankers’ bonuses, and use that money to create real jobs for young people.” (Telegraph)

Based on findings from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Miliband cited that “the average worker will be earning the same in three years’ time as they were ten years ago, but the weekly shop costs more, it costs a lot more to keep the house warm and we have a government that doesn’t believe that its job is to stand up for ordinary people against powerful vested interests.” (The Guardian) Criticising “unfair” overdraft charges, he went on to add that those who could least afford it were being made to pay the most for energy and travel while companies were “laughing all the way to the bank”. (BBC)

Miliband also pointed out how Prime Minister David Cameron was deliberately shutting out the medical profession itself as the Conservative-led government held a summit to supposedly deliberate the way forward on reforms to the NHS that Dr Kailash Chand described at a recent Labour Party meeting as privatisation via the back-door. As the GMB, SOR, RCM, CSP, RCGP, Unite, British Medical Association, and the Royal College of Nursing all oppose the Health and Social Care Bill, Miliband stated, “You don’t get progress on the NHS by shutting the door of Downing Street on doctors, nurses and patients’ groups. It’s not the actions of a Prime Minister to exclude from an NHS meeting the people who are the experts on the health service. The Prime Minister should listen to these experts and drop the bill.” (Independent)

Having ran a campaign at the last general election driven by a vow to “cut the deficit, not the NHS,” Cameron went on to freeze much of the government’s spending on the NHS (essentially a devastating cut when taking into account inflation) and now introduces a bill threatening its existence as we know it. Miliband said Cameron broke “all these promises and more… it is bad for our NHS and bad for politics…Before he became prime minister, David Cameron concealed his plans for creeping privatisation of our National Health Service, so people didn’t get a vote on these plans at the last election. But I give you my word that if he goes ahead, they will be a defining issue at the next.” (BBC)

Of course, you may have missed much of these statements, because The Daily Mail were busy highlighting a hospital visit where a toddler happened to start crying while being held by Ed, while the Telegraph showed Lord Prescott was scrutinising what was spent during Miliband’s time at the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

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In a recent entry, I looked at how British leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband, has been marginalised by the mainstream media while some of those around him have undermined his leadership of the Labour Party for their own interests.

To offer further evidence for my argument, I’m going to update this blog regularly with reports of what Ed’s said, and how much of it was given press attention through airtime or column inches.

In the United States, Barack Obama has operated in a structure where the military industrial complex and other lobbying arms have great power, and in what is essentially a two party system – “only one more choice than they had in the Soviet Union,” as Jesse Ventura said. Yet despite this framework, Obama’s often been attacked by those on the progressive side of the political spectrum, failing to do enough on healthcare, for example, even though he was blocked by Republicans.

In opposing a coalition comprised of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats – the only other two major parties – Ed Miliband has been the best bet in the British system for any hope of relief from a right-wing ideological agenda. And yet, as I argued, while the press sought to damage him, party members expressed disappointment in him, and, in turn, the media has further marginalised him – without staunch backing of his base, Ed’s language has slowly shifted to less radical terms.

Nonetheless, what’s also come from this is a pattern where those shaking his foundations are further playing to the tune of the media because much of what he says that is radically different from the coalition simply isn’t reported.

This is why, for the duration of Miliband’s quest for Downing Street, I will be posting a regular entry here listing what people might have missed in the media: What Ed Said.

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In my first book I included a prediction that New Labour was an unsustainable election-winning machine that would eventually break down, fixed only by the progressive values that the party was founded upon. That’s what happened.

When Ed Miliband became a candidate for leader of the Labour Party, he was seen as the best hope for a realistic opportunity to take the party back on its progressive course. When he became leader via a total of votes cast by MPs, members, and union members, many of us celebrated. His statesmanlike yet Blairite brother was defeated, and it was the demise of New Labour; time to start over.

As I’ve discussed at length several times here, Ed faced an immediate backlash from:

• The right-wing media: The Guardian backed the Liberal Democrats at the general election, and despite that party forming a coalition with the Conservatives and becoming their apologists, the broadsheet continued to undermine Ed Miliband, as did John Rentoul over at The Independent. But as if that wasn’t enough, naturally the press of Rupert Murdoch and his ilk were pulling out all the stops, too. Christening Miliband “Red Ed,” the right-wing rags focused on the large amount of votes from unions that contributed to his leadership win. All these votes were trivialised as not, say, the will of membership card-carrying workers, but their bosses, cleverly called “union barons.” Unite’s head representative – pardon me, union baron Len McLuskey, had even forged links with a “militant” union boss abroad – Canadian Leo Gerard, who came from the nickel mines of Sudbury, Ontario and has worked to globalise workers’ unions to match up with the globalised nature of the corporations they work for…a scary “militant” if I ever heard of one.
• The BBC: Despite being responsible for one of the greatest media manipulations in British media history when it edited footage of the Battle of Orgreave during the miners’ strike to falsely portray the picketers, and not the police, as instigators of the violence, the BBC’s old school small-C conservatism wasn’t enough to keep at bay constant claims by the right-wing media (as in, all the rest) that they were too “left-leaning” (which, as many media groups and experts will tell you, is a fabrication). So, they’ve only aided and abetted their more unashamed right-wing counterparts in framing the Credit Crunch™ as something related largely to Labour rather than Thatcherite financial deregulation, and presenting the cuts as part of TINA* instead of an ideological quest to sell off everything no matter the cost (as per Tory policy since Thatcher).
• The Blairites: Furious that their boy David Miliband had been pipped at the post in the last moments of the race to be leader, Ed was soon surrounded by those from the inner circle who clung to New Labour’s broken legacy and all the big business opportunities it opened up for them as individuals post-retirement. Lord Sainsbury even pulled his party donations because of Ed’s leadership. Their feeding of the negative news stories about him via their think tanks was only part of the action taken to stop Ed from listening to mass majority of progressives who comprise the grassroots base of the political party. To assuage their fears right away, he made Alan Johnson, not Ed Balls, shadow chancellor, despite the fact everyone knew two Eds was better than one. However, Balls got the post later on anyway, and the Blairites weren’t happy.

So, straight from the start, Ed Miliband had it made clear to him that trying to pry himself and his base away from the clutches of New Labour ideology that sought to support much of Thatcher’s capitalist quests wouldn’t be easy: he was being bullied into backing off from the stuff that would’ve made his dad proud. But hey, he still had his party members and all the grassroots activists to stick by him, right?

Wrong.

They crucified him.

Party members complained about his presentation in public. Bloggers ranted that he wasn’t socialist enough. Citizens in cities across the country blamed him for “allowing” Labour councils to slash services despite their budgets being cut by the national coalition government on high. In spite of the fact he even brazenly spoke at the March 26th “March for the Alternative” organised by major unions and even being cunningly juxtaposed by Murdoch’s Sky speaking over footage of rioting protesters, Ed got nothing much from the lefties besides a bashing. It was incredible. Did they, deep down, long for New Labour? Had they long since fallen in love with their oppressors?

As the months went by, Ed’s language softened. He took baby-steps away from anything that could be spun as reinforcing his “Red Ed” image as all the knives came out from inside his party and other parties, while the press slaughtered him. Few rallied to his side to stand up for him, making it easier for these forces to pile on the pressure to have him change his position further.

The one hope Labour had in a leader considered by undecided voters to be the best bet – by proxy – of abandoning New Labour was, incredibly, actually lacking in support from the reds. With each passing month of his leadership, the armchair experts spent more and more energy criticising Ed Miliband than I’d seen them use even to criticise his New Labour predecessors. In turn, this vulnerability was capitalised on by the media. He was defenceless. He remains defenceless today.

If Ed Miliband actually loses the leadership before 2015, what would that do to Labour? Well, apart from the party resembling the mess that was the Tory Party from 1997 to 2005 and starting a series of upheavals that could last several elections, it would likely leave its leadership position immediately open to a more Blairite politician.

Sure, we all know that no matter what they tell the press, Labour would never wreak upon Britain the kind of devastation done by the Tories at the moment, pay freezes and spending cuts or no – because they answer to a broad base of left-wing unions and community members who forced even the odious Tony Blair to pass some progressive policies. But isn’t it better to stick by a leader who comes from a more progressive position on a personal basis, rather than one doing things for people under duress? Ed Miliband is, on paper, arguably the best Labour leader the party’s had since 1994 at the latest. The Labour party needs a strong leader, but any leader is only as strong as his followers entrust and empower him to be.

So far, too many of Labour’s followers have guided their party right into the right-wing media’s hands. If they want to win the next election at all, they’d better rally round their leader, and they’d better do it fast – activists, bloggers; all of them. While they’re wanting him to stay progressive, in this system he needs all the help he can get.

*TINA: There Is No Alternative

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