Ed Miliband’s policies backed by public – The Guardian
Here’s some information that will enrage everybody who has been campaigning so ardently for the downfall of the Labour Party – people who have been duped by Lynton Crosby and (north of the border) the SNP. The Guardian has revealed the following:
Over 70 per cent of the public are in favour of Miliband’s policy to fund the NHS with extra taxes on tobacco companies and mansions, according to a new poll.
Every one of Ed Miliband’s pledges from his speech yesterday has popular public support.
A new Survation poll for Labour List of 1,037 people shows that 72% of the public are in favour of the policy to fund the NHS to the tune of £2.5bn extra a year, partially using taxes against tobacco companies and mansions as well as closing loopholes. Only 12% were against.
The polling suggests this pledge was particularly popular among Labour (81%) and Lib Dem (84%) voters from 2010, which is useful for a leader hoping to woo disaffected voters from Nick Clegg’s party.
![[Image: The Guardian.]](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/PercentsupportofMilibandple.png)
[Image: The Guardian.]
His pledge to break up the high street banks was the least popular (but still had 43.9% of people in favour of it). Only a quarter of people (24.9%) said they were opposed to it with 31.4% saying they didn’t know how they felt.
In fairness, the article adds: The way this poll is structured may be flattering to Labour’s prospects. By using Labour’s own phrasing, the poll presents each policy in quite a generous light, which makes it difficult to disagree with – not many people would say creating “a “world class” health service” is a bad idea, for example. This has the effect of making the policies look popular – and they may well be – but it may be that if the same policies were presented differently, the poll numbers could change a lot.
Nevertheless, this is exactly the response Labour needed, in advance of next year’s general election. Clearly the general public thinks that Ed Miliband is on the right track.
Of course, the election is still eight months away and much may change in that time. Public opinion is fickle and we may well see polls supporting David Cameron’s plans – or even Nick Clegg’s – before the end of October.
But it’s a big boost for Labour and will give the party the momentum it needs, in order to win the campaign and – if elected – let us hope Miliband will hit the ground running.
Because the UK needs a change, and it can’t come soon enough.
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Sigh, UK politics at it’s very best.
Another set of promises without substance.
They’ll all be uttering them and the sheeple will be suckered in by who ever speaks what they want to hear.
Except even if Labor get in power, nothing will really change.
Another set of temps will move in to blame the last lot for the mess they have inherited and can do nothing about.
A been there, done that government, different colour ties, yet probably churning out the same sh## as the last lot! There again the Tories might stay on power.
At which point we’ll all know the end is nigh (and the ballots were rigged).
Can’t agree more. Last time Labour were in power they did nothing to try and reverse the evil policies of Thatcher, rather Blair and his witless cronies simply carried them on and Cameron found it easy to slip into his shoes.
You do sometimes feel we might just as well have a Con/Lib/Lab coalition and be done with it.
That will never happen. Perhaps you can’t see the differences right now, but they are there, and growing.
The sheeple will see the headlines and not look into them properly – they’ll see “£8 per hour minimum wage if Labour get into power” – they don’t look further into it (and all parties know this), and see that it’s not till 2020 that this amount of £8 will be spread across the country. Look at London, the minimum wage there is already over £8 already!
All politicians do the same thing, big headlines but no going into it properly – shame on them.
A question – are you going to go on and on and on about the referendum and the SNP? As I’ve already said, the SNP is now the third largest political party in the UK and that has to mean something, or don’t you have anything nice to say about any other party except Labour?
I’m English born and bred, then lived for nearly 18 years in North Wales and now live in Scotland. I can see the difference in the countries that make up the UK, except for Ireland. I was in a near unique position to say what I thought of Independence and the reasons why and I voted Yes. I did the right thing as look what has happened with the so-called promises.
The fact that you say it will enrage people who are ardently campaigning for the downfall of the Labour party – it hasn’t enraged me at all, it’s made me stronger, and many thousands like me, to make sure that we do gain new powers or become Independent.
But jaypot2012, you haven’t looked properly into the minimum wage promise. It’s £8 at today’s prices. The actual intent is to raise the minimum wage from 54 per cent to 58 per cent of the average wage by the end of the next Parliament, and then to 60 per cent of the average shortly afterwards. At current levels it will be more than the Living Wage, everywhere outside London.
The minimum wage in London is £6.50, the same as the rest of the UK. It’s not called the National Minimum Wage for nothing! You’re thinking of the Living Wage, which is currently £8.80 in London.
Regarding the referendum, I think the furore will die down sooner or later but from my position, what happened afterwards was a disgraceful display by supporters of the ‘Yes’ campaign. They were completely unwilling to accept the democratic decision made by their countrymen and women, so they flooded this blog site – and the associated Facebook page – with anti-Labour propaganda, in accord with the line that has been fed to them that they were misled by Labour (most particularly with regard to pensions – not a concern raised by Labour but one raised by Gordon Brown as part of the ‘No’ campaign, and it is strange that ‘Yes’ campaigners can’t tell the difference between the two. Only on Question Time just now, a ‘Yes’ supporter was pointing out that their camp consisted of more organisations than just the SNP so I cannot understand why they have a problem understanding that about their opponents. Now, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were also part of the ‘No’ campaign and would have known what Mr Brown was going to say, yet it doesn’t seem to have struck any of the ‘Yes’ campaigners as being the slightest bit strange that the government waited three months after Brown said it, then announced that he was mistaken – and put an advert in the papers to that effect. Why not just tell him it’s unwise to say it in the first place? The most likely conclusion is that the ConDems were trying to besmirch Labour’s name north of the border. It seems they have succeeded, effectively duping more ‘Yes’ campaigners than will ever admit it.
As for the “so-called promises”, as you call them – did you spot who it was that had cold feet? David Cameron. Yet still ‘Yes’ campaigners are blaming Labour. Ed Miliband, interviewed by Andrew Marr all the way back on Sunday, said he was determined to see those powers delivered to Scotland, “No ifs, no buts”, and still ‘Yes’ campaigners are blaming Labour.
If David Cameron were to fecally disrespect the Saltire, these people would probably blame Labour for that as well!
That is why I have reacted so strongly against the ‘Yes’ people. They simply aren’t seeing what has really happened. If you really want these new powers, stop focusing on the wrong people and start asking the serious questions of David Cameron.
These policies do sound good and obviously they would be supported by all but the rich at the top of the ladder. However, if/when TTIP is ratified, I doubt that Labour would be able to tax the tobacco companies. Look what happened in Australia when they simply wanted to use plain packaging.
As you know, I am a Yes scot but, under the present circumstances, I would support Labour at Westminster (if it was humanly possible to return a Labour MP in my constituency) as it will be the only possible way to get rid of Camoron and his cronies. I don’t believe their policies are that much better to return me to a true supporter though.
TTIP is years away from making it into law in any form at all – I checked on the European Union website last night. Until that law was passed, a Labour government would be free to demand whatever it wanted from the fag firms. While that law was being debated, a Labour government could ensure that taxation of tobacco firms was protected, and there is no guarantee that it would even make it into law if it didn’t say what a Labour government wanted. The public groundswell against TTIP is building momentum all the time.
Mike, I would like to question your attitude to the number of Yes supporters “bombarding your blog” since the referendum. I can understand that you are not interested, being an Englishman living in Wales (I believe) , but can you not understand the feeling of the Yes voters. We have had this hope in our heads for 2 years (or longer) whereas the UK in general didn’t take notice until the last couple of weeks. It has been our main topic of interest.
Your blog has been mainly about the disgraceful policies that have been killing the sick, disabled and unemployed during this government as well as the destruction of the NHS in England, which has not yet affected Scotland. We backed you because we understood your feelings and saw how wrong it all was.
I don’t blame the Labour party in Westminster for the referendum fiasco which was obviously being orchestrated by the Tories. They were hoodwinked like the rest of us. I do, however, blame the Scottish Labour Party for dancing to their masters’ tune. They should have realised that they lost power in Holyrood for that very reason. They may be the majority party representing Scotland in Westminster but, when the SNP is an option, they have better policies up here.
I am interested.
The problem is, these ‘Yes’ supporters have been blinkered in their choice of what to believe and offensive in the way they have presented their opinions.
I also fear the consequences – for the future of the whole UK – of the anti-Labour propaganda that has been sweeping the social media by those who have been pushing it as though it were true. If enough people believe it, there can be only one consequence in the future: another Conservative government terrorising the whole of the UK, and Scotland as the testing-ground for its most vile policies (remember the Poll Tax).
I don’t know what’s going on with the Scottish Labour Party, but it does seem to be something that the Labour leadership will need to address – firmly.
The simple fact is – I don’t believe him. Neither do a hell of a lot of other perceptive people. They’ll weasel out of any ‘promises’ they make. ‘Labour’ is as dead for me as the ‘Liberals’ (what a misnomer!) and, of course, the lower-than-verminous Tories. A cleansing of the Augean stables is required and no intelligent human being is going to believe ‘Labour’ has the slightest intention of doing that. The Greens are a possibility, but unless rock-solid ‘Labour’ voters abandon tribalism they’re not going to get very far – and a lot of traditional ‘Labour’ voters who ARE wavering seem to be wavering in the direction of UKIP, for god’s sake! Talk about lemmings. Blind lemmings. Anyway, even the Greens are probably too tainted by the ‘Establishment’…
Please. You can only speak for yourself. Talk of “other perceptive people” and claims that “no intelligent human being is going to believe ‘Labour'” are merely attempts to lend yourself a kind of faux legitimacy. It’s just your opinion – and the problem you (rightly) identify, of traditional Labour voters who are leaning towards UKIP, is being exacerbated by similar claims.
No, Mike. There are plenty of other people posting on the internet who perceive Milliband as not being believable – and honestly, do YOU believe that ANY of the Establishment parties have the slightest intention of applying the kind of cleansing which is required? Frankly, the adage that power corrupts (and absolute power corrupts absolutely) is overwhelmingly true. That’s an opinion based on history. Those who want power are the very ones who should be kept a million miles away from it! Unfortunately that also includes those who would have the excellent intentions (the road to hell…) of doing, or at least facilitating, the necessary cleansing. Basically, I would say (opinion) that we, the human race and the planet, are stuffed, barring a miracle (or a whole cartload of miracles). All we can do is do what we can… (and ‘Labour’, certainly in its present incarnation, is not the solution; I’ll defend that ‘opinion’ as long as you like!)
And can you vouch for the good character and intentions of all those detractors? How many are Tory fifth-columnists? How many are Lib Dems? How many are UKIP (lots, I expect)? And how many are people who voted ‘Yes’ at the Scottish referendum, didn’t get their own way and are now taking it out on the wrong person?
Of course there will be people who reckon Miliband is a wrong ‘un – but you can’t speak for any of them. You can only speak for yourself. This blog is about politics as I see it – I don’t claim to be representing any majority or consensus. It is considered popular and influential but popularity doesn’t mean people agree with what I’m saying – look at The Sun; most of its readers disagree with its political stance. As for influence, I have no idea in which direction.
And what kind of “cleansing” do you think is necessary? I bet I could throw a stone out of the window and hit somebody with different ideas.
None of those to whom I refer are Tory fifth-columnists or Lib Dems; they are certainly not deranged and/or deluded UKIPpers; just reasonable decent human beings – and you’re also happily throwing stones at ‘Yes’ voters in the Scottish referendum. For what it’s worth, as an Englishman – with Welsh roots too – living in Sweden, I supported those Scots (and non-Scottish residents of Scotland) who voted for self-determination; also as someone who is and has been a socialist – a non-extreme ‘lefty’ – and, until recent times, a Labour supporter and voter (though never uncritical where criticism was, in my opinion, deserved) all his life. As for the cleansing – in my view the whole economic and political (and religious!) system world-wide is corrupt and rotten, with very few exceptions. How the cleansing happens and how it could be done? I don’t really have much of a clue! However, I think you and I simply have to agree to differ on certain matters…
I’ll happily throw metaphorical stones at ‘Yes’ voters in the Scottish referendum who then misguidedly turned on Labour and Ed Miliband when they represent the only organised attempt to fulfil the promises made to Scotland by the Westminster parties!
This is the nub of the matter, though – you don’t believe in Miliband and Labour, because you don’t think they’ll deliver, yet here they are working very hard to deliver what was promised to a Scotland that is (the vocal part, at least) determined to deny that they’re doing it!
Maybe we will have to agree to differ – for now. We’ll have to see what happens after the election next May – if Labour gets into office.
Lets just stop and be honest about the minimum wage for a minute.
I’m no political expert and i’m certainly not a fancy talker but the current minimum wage of £6.50 is a perfectly adequate amount for someone to live on (except for maybe in the London area). It is also a perfectly fair level of payment for the thousands of unskilled jobs out there. Why should someone sweeping a car park be getting paid more than the current minimum wage? The only result will be less people being employed to do those low level unskilled jobs. We know from experience that it will not be the employers who will absorb the cost of a higher minimum wage.
It is proven that low earners are more likely to be smokers and are more likely to be heavy drinkers. The additional money earned would end up being spent on the additional taxes on drink and smoking which the government would push through to pay for a higher minimum wage.
It is also extremely easy in the current system to use benefits to enhance the amount of money being received by the people who are earning minimum wage. Most, if not all, people on minimum wage who look at the benefits available are receiving a figure not far off the £8 an hour reported in this article.
I bet loads of people are going to have something to say about this.