Ed Miliband – biggest threat to the status quo for decades – kittysjones

Last Updated: November 14, 2014By

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Vox Political is planning to review Ed Miliband’s fightback against the media attacks of the last couple of weeks. To whet your appetite, here’s kittysjones on his speech yesterday:

“We’re in a fight not because our opponents think we’re destined to lose the election. But because they fear we can win. And between now and the election they are going to use every tactic to try to destabilise, distract us and throw us off course. Our task, the task for every person in this party, is simple: To focus our eyes on the prize of changing this country.” Ed Miliband.

Ed Miliband has pledged to take on “vested interests” and “powerful forces” in his bid to win the next general election. Not even the Crosby  and Murdoch orchestrated  media campaign, which was aimed at demoralising, undermining and monstering Ed Miliband can disguise the fact that the Tories are in a state of panic.

In fact the media campaign, aimed at attempting to undermine Miliband’s credibility as a leader, arose precisely because Miliband is the biggest threat to the UK power base and status quo that we’ve seen for many decades. He’s challenging the neo-liberal consensus of the past 30 years – now that is a plain indication of strong leader, and someone with personal strength and courage.

As for the media, and the attempt at agenda-setting, well we’ve known for the past four years that there is now a big chasm between what is real, and what is deemed “newsworthy”. Because the mainstream media have no interest in public interests, only vested ones. It’s about time that we reclaimed our democracy and showed them that WE set the agenda, not overpaid and highly corrupted journalists and editors. Or monopolies like the wake of scandals that is News Corp.

In his inspiring speech at the University of London, Ed Miliband said he would tackle a “zero-zero economy”, saying people were on so-called zero-hours contracts while the rich “get away with zero tax”. He talked about the Labour policy to defend our NHS – currently being fragmented by a privatisation programme that no-one voted for – which was particularly welcome, funded by a clampdown on tax avoidance and taxing hedge funds and cigarette companies.

He said he would “I am willing to put up with whatever is thrown at me in order to fight for you.”, and that it was the party’s “duty… not to shrink from the fight, not to buckle under the pressure but to win”.

These are NOT the words of a man who’s on the way out; they’re the words of a man on the way IN to Downing Street. To read more, visit kittysjones‘ article.

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19 Comments

  1. Yash Kansal November 14, 2014 at 6:15 am - Reply

    What about rotten banking system of UK-plc under Labour + TORY with taxpayer’s support but to ordinary public demise, most absurdly as a kickback in the teeth?

    • Mike Sivier November 14, 2014 at 12:03 pm - Reply

      What about what? Are you harping on about the past, when Gordon Brown paid too much credence to bankers who told him they didn’t need any more regulation, even though he resisted Tories who were telling him they needed less? Labour has admitted it was wrong to listen to those bankers and more regulation was required. The Tories, of course, never will.

      • Yash Kansal November 15, 2014 at 3:14 am - Reply

        If that was the case why Labour took away the OLD LADY birth right to regulate clearing banks by creating dysfunctional FSA under blemished Lord Hunt, which caused 2008 financial crash under FSA watch. This week £2 Billion fine against 5 Banks but 3 are practically Nationalised, by Tory which was a pathetic joke to pull over public eyes, but Labour was silent apparently. Hence both Parties are equally guilty in collusion with BANKS

        It is a great pity that the majority of the Americans/Brits are remotely controlled by likes of FOX, NBC, CNN, BBC etc., who are all owned by Corporate America other than perhaps very small tiny likes of C-Span TV in USA or Channel-4 in UK. As BBC in UK has lost its credibility under various scandals while it also caved in under grotesque Blair with his total control on judiciary for final outcome (Whitewash) to elude from War Crimes with Retard (Bush).

        As these Corporate America is run by Goldman Sachs, Bank America and others, who most absurdly own Federal Reserve Bank, World Bank, UN in NY, Capitol Hill and Uncle SAM. Their only motive is Obscene Greed in perpetuity, while enslaving the rest of the world populations and looting of earth resources, I am afraid.

        I am afraid majority of these politicians defy Logic + Gravity, any day.

        http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/07/05/warning-corporate-interests-are-not-public-interests

        • Mike Sivier November 15, 2014 at 10:25 pm - Reply

          Most of the above is very hard to understand, the way it is written. This is a shame as there may be a kernel of fact in it.

  2. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl) November 14, 2014 at 7:22 am - Reply

    Keep it up Ed. This is what we have been waiting for. At last we have hope for a decent society once more.

  3. Michele Witchy Eve November 14, 2014 at 9:03 am - Reply

    Miliband says those magic words – ‘long term’ and implies that his focus is for the benefit of the people as a country. It is the sound of thunder after a long, bitter drought.

  4. hilary772013 November 14, 2014 at 10:19 am - Reply

    Mike I for one have been undecided, I want RID of the Tory’s but was so unsure about Labour & Ed leading the party.

    I listened to his speech yesterday & must say was VERY impressed with both ED & his agenda, I actually found myself nodding & agreeing with what he was saying.

    My only reservation is.. will he keep his promises after the election. as we have found out words mean nothing and all politicians can promise anything & we have no recourse after the election to force them to keep their promises, I refer to Camerons the NHS is safe in our hands amongst other failed promises but you get my point.

    The only time ED seemed to falter was under questioning from the Rotten Media the Sun et al he stuttered a little & didn’t really answer their questions but that is politicians for you anyway.

    Ed actually looked & sounded like the next prime minister, I only hope he means what he says & acts on his promises.

    I saw a glimmer of hope yesterday & we all know Ed really needs to go further & sort out the failed welfare debacle in the disguise of reforms.

  5. Jim Round November 14, 2014 at 1:08 pm - Reply

    Actions speak louder than words.
    I often wonder if the country would vote for a real socialist government, unfortunately, my gut instinct tells me they wouldn’t.

    • paulmabbo November 15, 2014 at 12:28 am - Reply

      They just might after another four years of this shower.

      • Mike Sivier November 16, 2014 at 1:20 pm - Reply

        Unlikely, because the right-wing mainstream media would tell them not to, and any socialist political organisations would have become more right-wing in an attempt to respond to the perceived changes in voting behaviour.
        The Tories and Liberal Democrats have to go – as soon as possible. Nothing can justify the damage and death they are causing.

  6. HomerJS November 14, 2014 at 4:17 pm - Reply

    I too was impressed with Ed, although it has been a long time coming. He needs to regularly perform like this right up to election day.

  7. Guy Ropes November 14, 2014 at 8:24 pm - Reply

    I’ve no wish to be too excitable but… “a threat to the status quo”? I thought the Labour Party and their leaders WERE part of the status quo. It’s the status quo we have to get rid of; more of the same won’t do anyone any good.

    • Mike Sivier November 14, 2014 at 8:34 pm - Reply

      That’s where you’re going wrong, then – apparently.

  8. Lloyd Kennedy November 15, 2014 at 10:03 pm - Reply

    No one is a threat to the status quo or they wouldn’t even be a prospective candidate . If Miliband is elected , he’ll do exactly as he’s told by the civil service , MI5 and every other aspect of the establishment .

    • Mike Sivier November 15, 2014 at 10:19 pm - Reply

      Perhaps you’re thinking of the wrong status quo there (and no, I don’t think the band is intended, either).
      There is a consensus about how things should be done that has been generally accepted in the political classes for the last 20 years or so; Miliband threatens that.

  9. Guy Ropes November 16, 2014 at 10:04 am - Reply

    Mike – the last 20 years? The current status quo in this country has a history lasting centuries. Probably stretching back to William the Conqueror. The families that were given the rights to rule over Britain then are still exercising that power now.

    • Mike Sivier November 16, 2014 at 1:03 pm - Reply

      Oh really?
      In 1977, the UK reached the point in its history when wealth distribution was at its closest to being equal. It seems to me that the vested interests to which you refer must have been at their lowest ebb then – if they even existed at all. Or do you think that they allowed the working classes to enjoy the best job security and wages they’d ever had, coupled with the best legal rights, as a kind of joke – let ’em have it, then take it all away? That doesn’t make any sense.
      Systems exist to ensure there will always be a British state and that it should not be destabilised, but that’s not the same as saying the same people have been running it all the time. The UK is subject to the same tidal flows of political philosophy as the rest of the world and in the 1990s the prevalent political philosophy – insane though it is – was that of Milton Friedman and Fred Hayek. This form of political thought said that big business and new money was the new god, and the working classes had to be suppressed. The masses bought it as a means of justifying their own selfishness and greed, not realising that it was taking away from them the rights that they really needed (until it was too late). This is the work of Margaret Thatcher, Nicholas Ridley, Keith Joseph, Tony Blair… are these the “families that were given the rights to rule over Britain” centuries ago? Of course not.
      Now tell me they’re actually puppets of the real rulers so I can laugh at you as a deluded conspiracy theorist.
      Seriously, how do you expect any of us to give you credence if you come out with this kind of claptrap?

      • Guy Ropes November 16, 2014 at 7:23 pm - Reply

        I can’t believe that the first sentence of your reply was written by someone purporting to be a socialist. That particular 1977 tranche of near-equality must have passed me and my family by. My family was still emptying their shit out of a bucket and burying it in the garden and drawing water from a well. Perhaps the equality you refer to was – in part – the fact that we had a garden where my father grew vegetables because they were too dear at the shops. Ah, what halcyon days! But we were talking of the status quo; – the status quo in respect of the criminal justice system in the country has not changed one jot in the past 500 years. A read of Dickens – in respect of his era – would help anyone appreciate that. A read of Birmingham, Guildford, Orgreave etc etc etc would surely convince others. Or maybe just read today’s papers. Miliband would not – and could not – do anything to change that state of affairs. If he made a promise to reform it – or resign if he didn’t when elected – he’d win by a landslide. Even I would rush to the polling station to vote for him. And as for conspiracy theories – you show that you believe in them by calling out the coalition as liars at almost every available opportunity. If you don’t believe them, then you are a conspiracy theorist because their policies are not concocted by one single person. You just don’t like to admit that you are one because it sounds as if you think it’s beneath you to be one. D’you believe Duncan-Smith ?

        • Mike Sivier November 17, 2014 at 12:56 am - Reply

          The equality statistic was quoted on TV in a political show, so one expects them to know what they were talking about. This article – http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jun/27/century-income-inequality-statistics-uk – suggests 1979 was the most equal point. Your personal circumstances are your business, of course.
          You’re mistaken about criminal justice. At least in recent decades the possibility of judicial review and bringing new evidence to the courts has meant that people who were wrongly imprisoned have been released. You should read Ludovic Kennedy’s books on these matters. The current government has been working very hard to change that state of affairs and make it much harder for ordinary people to get justice, as news reports on these matters over the past few months and years ably demonstrate.
          Labour does intend to take action to counter the current government’s changes to the legal system, but has been unable to formulate policy because the Cameron government denied necessary access to relevant civil servants until this month (November). Further details are available here: http://thejusticegap.com/2014/09/legal-aid-labour-pushing-manifesto-hope/
          I’m not a conspiracy theorist because I call the Coalition liars at every available opportunity. I call the Coalition liars when the evidence shows that they are liars. It really is as simple as that.

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