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Cameron “presiding over a shambles” on petrol, says Miliband

March 29, 2012 10:05 am

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Ed Miliband has attacked the PM for governing in “crude party interest”, after a day of escalating, government fuelled panic over petrol (including some shocking newspaper headlines for the Government), Miliband’s statement is below:

“The Prime Minister is presiding over a shambles on petrol. The country is paying the price for the incompetent way he is governing. In a delicate situation which demanded statesmanship the Government showed partisanship.”

“They made a crude decision to play politics with petrol without regard for the consequence.”

“Being able to fill your car up or worrying about how you will get to work is not something that should be subject to political games. This is real life and Ministers are out of touch with people sitting in queues as a result of their incompetence. Now the Prime Minister needs to get a grip and calm the situation.”

“Strikes should be avoided at all costs. That means getting both sides negotiating through ACAS today. Then David Cameron and Francis Maude should apologise to the country for the way they have handled this situation. And David Cameron should understand the lesson of this week: that he should start governing in the national interest not crude party interest.”

Related posts:

  1. Petrol, Panic, Pasties and more bad headlines for Cameron
  2. Rude, crude and Crass Cameron cornered by Miliband – PMQs verdict, March 30th
  3. Miliband corners Cameron, not once, but twice
  4. Now that Cameron is leading, we need to back him
  5. Miliband and Cameron clash over Europe
  • William

    Following advice from that intellectual collosus Francis Maude I’m storing petrol in my bath and so should you be.

    • Daveapostles

      I’m in a quandary (similar to a both, I suppose): should I use the bath to hoard water, pasties or petrol?

      • Dave Postles

        or even: similar to a bath.

  • Hamish

    A Labour leader saying that strikes should be avoided at all costs?
    Strikes liike wars should be the last resort, but some times they are necessary and just.

    • treborc

      A strike is taken after a vote by the members, but wars are normally taken by leaders who tend to not really be interested what people say especially if they get medal for it, and loads of money.

    • Robert_Crosby

      Miliband, Balls et al should stop being so defensive on strikes.  They could kill this nonsense once and for all by pointing out that while it is not their place to either celebrate or condemn strikes, but that they acknowledge that trade unions and the right to strike are hallmarks of a civilised society.  Clearly, there is a responsibility on union representatives and members to exercise the right responsibly – but then I’ve never met anyone involved in trade unionism who does strike unless it’s a last resort.

      The Tories are the hypocrites here… they encourage unions overseas when it suits their political agenda but they treat trade unionists here as if they are the scum of the earth.  It’s about time Labour at least helped to make the case for responsible trade unionism.    

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