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Bravo Mr Miliband – but actions speak louder than words

April 21, 2012 1:21 pm

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There are some great quotes in today’s Ed Miliband interview with Patrick Wintour in the Guardian that suggests the Labour leader genuinely understands the change that the party needs to undergo if we are to win the next election, and avoid more Bradford West-esque results. Here’s a selection of the most important lines:

“I take Bradford 100% seriously. It was a very important reminder that unpopularity for government does not necessarily mean success for Labour. You have got to earn it and show that not all main parties are the same. Let us be frank, there is a great, great cynicism about politics and politicians and that is what we have to punch through.”

“People are so sceptical of any established politics to deliver and part of my task is to think about the way we organise, the way we communicate, the way we talk about our politics, so we can convince them we have changed. We have got to take up the mantle of change.”

“You campaign at elections, but you also campaign all year round. If you think people have no faith in politics you cannot just be the people that say ‘vote for us’.”

“We have got to help change people’s lives directly. We have got to take our members seriously, so they are no longer there just to deliver leaflets. We have to find ways to grow an activist base from just 15 people. Every local party member that joins needs to get a visit from someone asking why have they joined what are you interested in. We often don’t do that.”

“The temptation is that you just knock on the doors of the people who have already voted for you, and you ignore those that don’t vote, but that means you have a declining pool of people to reach.”

Fine words Mr Miliband, for which you should be congratulated. But until we see concrete actions that these words will become actions, the membership will remain sceptical that the Labour Party is really changing at all. As I said last week – Labour is not a changed party – not yet.

This is another positive step on the road to change, but actions speak louder than words.

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  • http://lewesdistricttuc.org/ Bill

    The Tories are robbing us of our public services, our health service & our welfare state. But above all they are robbing us of hope. Labour will not reconnect with ordinary people until we can pin our hopes on them. Miliband & Balls supporting the continued pay freeze on some of the poorest workers in our society does not serve that end. Nor does Balls over cautious refusal to commit to reversal of the most vicious of the Tory cuts. Labour is not yet a changed Party. I fear that Miliband will lack the political courage to make those changes

    • james

      ROFLMAO – perhaps you’d like to come to Lib Dem led stockport – no libraries closed, frontline services protected unlike next door Labour Manchester. Let’s be clear under Labour there’d be cuts to the NHS more than under this Government.

      Labour are caught between a rock and a hard place – do they go for Swedish style social democracy in which case best spell out the extra privations on the floating voters or go for `uber- germanic social market liberalism`.

      In the meantime where I live: http://iainroberts.mycouncillor.org.uk/2012/02/28/revealed-tories-labour-in-coalition-talks-to-grab-all-paid-positions-in-stockport/

      • Amber Star

        @ James@c233e539098990921904325bd767b310:disqus 

        Yes, the Tories & their LibDem partners in crime have cynically protected their own constituencies from cuts or delayed them until after the local elections whilst ensuring the axe falls hardest in Labour constituencies.

        You’ve come here to gloat about the cuts being inflicted on the people of Manchester. Are you representative of where the LibDems have sunk to? If so, I hope you & yours take a right good ’kicking’ in the polls on May 3rd.

        • james

          another deluded labourite – never answers the questions just wallows in their own narrative

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

            Just shows the FibDems in their true colours – orange is indistinguishable from blue. They are every bit as much our enemy as the Tories – and lets not forget it. Obliteration is too good for them

          • Holly

            This is the problem caused by today’s  ’tribal’ politics.
            All three parties have become the public’s enemies.
            Constantly carping how one party did this & one party did that. Agreeing something needs ‘doing’ but carping on how ‘their way’ is better.
            We are sick and tired of it, so the public , whoever they previously voted for, glaze over and turn off, because they are hearing nothing of any substance/relevance to their own day to day lives.
            When the three main political parties make enemies of the public,which they most certainly have, they are ALL in deep trouble.
            Have the self restraint not to play the childish games that are going on in politics, and call the Lib Dems, Lib Dems, even lying Lib Dems if you feel that way, because silly childish names make you come across as silly and childish.
            With all the talk of enemies, and obliteration, well that is all very nice and ‘tribal’, but it does nothing to raise the standing of Labour, because they are perceived by the people as being exactly the same as the other two main parties.
            Sometimes even I find it hard not to be sucked in to the playground games today’s politics/politicians have sunk to, but we have to if we are to salvage anything the majority can trust.
            Remember it is not just political anoraks who come on to political bloggs it is Joe Bloggs from No 22 as well.
            Do you think your language makes Labour or their supporters look ‘governmental’?
            No offence intended.
            Love
            Holly
            xxx

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

            I’d say having three identikit parties with no ideological difference has been the problem. “They’re all the same” – yes, that’s been true, and I think we need more concrete and distinct differences to offer a choice. I don’t seek co-operation and compromise – its what we have had for far too long, an uninspiring centrist mushy mess which has led to the lowest collective vote for the main parties since the war.

            Rather the inspiration of Bevan who knew Tories were lower than vermin and said so. You are just asking for more of the same ‘take the politics out of politics’ that has been apparent for far too long

          • Bill Lockhart

            I’m quite happy for the hard left to fall into the hands of  wealthy dilettante hobbyists like yourself. It ensures the perpetual electoral irrelevance of your hate-filled political agenda.

          • treborc1

            Oh boy that is so funny, Mile Homfray is hard left, if you said I was hard left I might proudly say yes, but him hard left.

          • Holly

            Is Bevan on a ballot paper though Mr Mike?
            Look at this from a voter’s point of view. They trusted Labour under Blair.
            Blair told them ‘he was different’. His successor was going to be Labour’s salvation, and he did an even worse job at showing the voter how credible Labour were. They also know most of the opposition front bench was in the bunker along with Brown.
            Now we have Miliband trying to convince us ‘he is different’. Why would the public believe him, and so soon after being thrown out of power? On top of that, the same people in place who were part of the last Labour government, the people gave the lowest share of votes to since WWII?
            Simply saying that Bevan said something, way back when, does not change the fact that the public does not trust any of the three main parties, but more often than not, plump for the devil they know….Now going on what has happened financially & socially in the UK during Labour’s time in power, do you reckon that’ll be Labour.
            If Ed wants the public to trust him he HAS to be seen to have changed, get rid of those in his cabinet who the public can identify from the previous Labour government would be a head start.
            Lower than vermin eh?
            You say we have ‘Three identikit parties’  so, in the eyes of the people deciding which vermin they vote for, of the main three, quoting Bevan does not bode well for Labour, Tories or Lib Dems.
            Reminding them of this simply adds to the problems Labour face as well as the Coalition parties….In the eyes of the public, they are ALL lower than vermin at the moment.

             

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

            I don’t think its realistic to remove everyone who had any involvement with the last government – then the party would just be accused of not having anyone with experience.

            Blair was a good showman but there was little substance .

            I think part of building back credibility has to be a clear belief in the party and what we want to do, and  that means not trying to be all things to all people. We shouldn’t expect everyone to want to vote for us because some people clearly won’t like what we have to say. That’s if Labour gets back to being – well, Labour! That is going to take time. It will mean saying that some of the things that the last Labour government did were wrong – but I’d imagine our analysis of what was wrong may well differ.

          • Holly

            My analysis of what went wrong is that they hid what was really going on, in the economy, immigration levels, schools, care homes, hospitals etc.
            We were constantly told the exact opposite was the truth, and everything was fine.
            Mind you, we are now being told that everything is far from fine, and we don’t like that either….people eh?

        • Winston_from_the_Ministry

           Maybe Manchester council should try collecting a bit more of the council tax owed to them?

      • Alexwilliamz

        Ummm frontline services like Youth services, or parks, or lollypop men/women, or other front line services that you are unaware of, are these the ones you mean. There may not have been any libraries closed yet, but there is a leisure centre to be closed, and another only stayed open after a massive public campaign and some strong support from the local Labour councillors. There will be a number of services that will also be heavily affected by back office cuts, which as yet have not directly affected services but will reduce capacity. the main difference between Stockport and Manchester is to do with the amount of cash from central gvt each authority received, this is what has been cut, so if your council received a bigger slice of that money, then oddly enough they will have to cut more services. The colour of the council is pretty irrelevent.

        I also imagine that Stockport will no longer be Lib Dem led after May 3rd and will have to share power with the other parties, which will hopefully make them more open and transparent. If that happens it would seem that the residents of stockport are far from happy with their local council and the self aggrandising former Labour party councillor who leads it, and who may also find himself without a seat.

        In terms of cuts to NHS, while there may have been less money to the NHS, it would not be having to restructure and reorganise itself, at what eventual cost we will probably never know. I am also not convinced of why the NHS should be spared cuts at the expense of say adult services, since all this does is either keeps people in hospitals longer as there is insufficient support for them to go home, or see people end up in hospital when this might have been prevented if other services had not been cut. I also fear for mental health wards over the coming years, aside from the impact other cuts may have on people’s lives.

      • Brumanuensis

        So, what’s your percentage cut in your central grant been then? And then compare it to Manchester City Council’s. Of course, Stockport and Manchester are demographically identical and have exactly the same demands on services, so we’re comparing like-for-like here, aren’t we? Oh and they have same council tax base too of course?

        …

  • Winston_from_the_Ministry

    Am I the only person who thinks this sounds like he’s been reading Labourlist?!?

    Some of those lines I’m sure I’ve read here in the last few weeks…

    • treborc1

       Problem is of course reading labour list and understanding labour list seems to be a problem for Labour and Mr Miliband.

      Words are great if people are listening right now I doubt they are.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

    I think he’s grasped that the constant triangulation and trying to be more-centrist-than-thou has simply led to ‘a plague on all your houses

    I do feel his heart and instincts are in the right place – always have

  • Alexwilliamz

    I hope this will be backed up and reflected in the candidates selected for the next election. We need to have more MPs who can point at a background more in keeping with those they represent. Even a few years out there working in non political, non media jobs would be good.

    • Daniel Speight

       But as the Manchester Central choice shows, he will still welcome having his own spads in safe seats.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

        Only it wasn’t like that – which everyone in Manchester acknowledges. The winning candidate was born and brought up in Manchester, has been active in the party there and fought a Manchester seat at the last election. She took the job with Ed after he became leader of the party.

        • Slakah

          She even has a Manc accent and did Chemistry for her Degree. That certainly doesn’t smack of a career politician, it sounds as though she got involved and loved it.

          • treborc1

            But it’s funny how these bright people end up coming in to
            politics, I mean with a degree in Chemistry the world is her Oyster, yet she turns to Politics.

        • Alexwilliamz

          It is just a shame you did not have a completely political background, three or four years working in a job not tied up in gvt or political circles. Personally I think she will make an OK MP and people with purely political backgrounds no doubt make good MPs and even party leader ;) I just think it would be helpful for a broader representation of people to reflect those they serve. This is aprt of the disconnect that our politics is struggling with. I also think there may be a wider malaise linked to lack of a grand narrative of purpose for the nation state.

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

            I’d like to see a wider range of candidates too, but I really don’t think this was a parachuting job at all. She won support from all sides of the party

          • Daniel Speight

             Mike we have another parliamentary candidate that looks like a clone of those already there. I didn’t say it was a parachute, but if you agree there is too little difference in the backgrounds of these candidates you have to start somewhere changing the range of people standing. Manchester Central would have been a good place to start.

            We can start with the CLPs, but it does need some leadership from the central party. How about some advice that no more Oxbridge, SPADs or ex-NUS leaders as candidates unless there is some compelling reason.

    • JoeDM

      Substantial experience of  working in non-political & non-media jobs should be considered essential for all those looking for elected office.   Whatever the political party.

      There are far too many career clones in Parliament who have never expereinced a serious job outside politics.  How can they be expected to represent normal over-taxed, hard working people ?

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  • james

    I seem to recall in ’11 that Labour in Stockport said that council tax was too high in Stockport. I’d be interested to hear where in their proposed budget (the one they present at the town hall) they would increase services while reducing council tax. Or is it that in reality the Lib Dems are better at looking after peoples money. 

    Incidentally, I note that my local cllr got so fed up with Labour that he’s endorsing the Lib Dem candidate. He claims that Labour propose a stitch up with the tories to create a coalition and take all the paid places. Is this right?

    • Alexwilliamz

      I thought you were cheadle, are you now in manor? On the issue of that councillor I think we should ALL be careful around what went on there. Best for all parties to leave him to represent the ward as best he can until it is next up for election.

      • james

        why what went on?

        • Alexwilliamz

          I’d call it a personal tradegy, I’m sure you can read between the lines from the local lib dem website.

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