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It’s hunting season for Ed Miliband

July 2, 2012 9:21 am

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Last year Ed Miliband called for Rebekah Brooks to resign. At the time it seemed like a high risk manouvre – albeit the right thing to do – but quickly the narrative became established that Brooks was too tarnished to hold on.

The same is now happening with Bob Diamond and Barclays. It’s hunting season.

Miliband is driving the agenda again, and he has the establishment on the run.

The always insightful James Forsyth wrote yesterday in the Mail that Diamond made a ”job saving” call to Miliband last week to try and win the support of the Labour leader. He was blatantly unsuccessful. In speeches on Thursday at Unite conference and on Saturday to the Fabians Ed ramped up his rhetoric on the banks and fleshed out the extent to which he believes that the banks need to change. This morning on Daybreak he went one step further, saying:

“I think there needs to be more a more general change of leadership including the chief executive, Bob Diamond.”

Ed and his team are now back into the rythmn that worked so well last year, and will exploit the PM’s weakness once again. Day by day the drumbeat builds – first saying that the banks need to change, then outlining how – and urging changes at the top of the banks. Today, he calls for Diamond to go. Tomorrow, should Diamond still be in a job, he’ll ask why Diamond is still in post. And on Wednesday he’ll box the Prime Minister in at PMQs, and ask if he’ll join him in calling for for Diamond’s resignation too.

The Prime Minister will be trapped by his own inaction, will be forced to choose between defending a discredited banking mogul or backing Miliband’s call to action. Questions will be asked about why the PM has spent so much time contemplating an EU referendum when he should have been tackling the banking crisis unfolding on his doorstep. The answer of course is that the Tory Right have boxed him in too. All of a sudden Fraser Nelson’s comments about the PM and his Chancellor appearing not to consider themselves in charge appears all the more credible.

So far, then, so good – and Ed Miliband deserves credit for his handling of another unfolding collapse in Britain’s establishment. But what Ed needs to start doing now is looking ahead.

Although the LIBOR scandal – like the News of the World scandal – will likely define how his leadership is viewed in the country, and boost his already considerable momentum going into the summer, the true test of his leadership will be if he can identify these crises in advance, and speak out on them before they explode in the lap of the government. That is the true measure of leadership, and what is needed if Labour forms the next government – a leader willing to make the big changes when they aren’t presented to him, and who can show this level of bravery when he doesn’t have the wind behind him. The squeezed middle was a good start, but future interventions will need to be more specific.

But for now, the wind is certainly blowing in his direction, and the following winds will surely force another change of direction from the PM, just as surely as the turbulent seas will soon sink Bob Diamond.

And then Ed can lift his eyes to scan the horizon for the next storm.

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  • Watcherintheskies

    A rising storm on the horizon is HS2 and Cameron knows it, shoving it on the back boiler to simmer. What Cameron needs to do is to kill it stone dead or it will bite him and cause long-term damage to the Tory party.

    • Will Slater

      I see nothing in this whole HS2 that will benefit the North, the only thing that will benefit the North is the return of Manufacturing and jobs. The ones that Thatcher destroyed when she replaced it with the London-centric City and Financial Sector (to which Brown and Blair did carry on with)

      However HS2 will bite Cameron in the backside, I hope it does!

      • JoeDM

         And how exactly is ‘manufacturing’ going to compete with China and the rest of the rapidly developing thrid world?

        British manufacturing of mass market goods failed because they were priced out of export markets by Major’s stupid pro-EU policy of £ shadowing the ERM.   Almost exactly the same thing has happened to Greece since joining the Euro !!!!

        • treborc

          Nothing to do with rubbish governments and I will admit Unions gone mad and sadly nobody bothering about modernisation.

          Look at Land Rover Jaguar, Rolls Royce now, OK the market are now around for these vehicles but we still had to flog them off.

          And Government more interested in finance  and banking all Governments and parties.

        • Dave Postles

           You just need to look around.  My kit from PCSpecialist is assembled in this country, adding value.  It is better value than the off-the-shelf stuff from the corporates sold on the High Street or shopping parks – lower price and higher spec.  PCSpecialist is not the only SME involved in this assembly (I’ve also used Novatech).  You also define your own specification online.  You receive reports about the assembly and the bench testing. 
          The car industry is a major exporter and could satisfy internal demand if consumers exercised preference in their purchasing. 

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

    I remember Ed’s first speech as leader. I liked it – thought it was interesting, and the theme of predatory capitalism and its problems certainly chimed with me.

    I recall how critical some others were of it, who saw it as an attack on the City boys and high financiers they had worked so hard to ingratiate Labour with

    They were wrong. Utterly wrong. And Ed was right.

    • treborc

      Yes but of course the problem with  telling people about this after the problem has broken is again jumping on band wagons. I think the public will be saying  ah well nothing we can do about it.

      It would be nice to hear politicians coming out warning us before the breaking news on the TV.

      Then we think back to things like the housing bubble which exploded and remember
      ministers telling us , we will let the market sort it out and we all screamed back it’s going to explode.

      We all remeber the minister telling us we do not like rich people, over the bonus culture, but we were alls aying hold on where does this money come from, how is it made.

      you can say of course it’s easy for me to say this now because , after the incident it’s easy.

      Miliband  needs to stop jumping on band wagons and start fighting the Tories on what they are doing, today we hear the Tories are talking about backing Merkel, saying she is right to demand austerity in the EU, but we in the Tories will carry on without plans for cuts.

      This is where Miliband needs to fight.

      People are not stupid as politicians think, we know for example if the Phone hacking had not come into the Open, Brooks and Murdock would have been great pals of labour and Miliband. 

    • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

      Even Progress has featured a piece by Paul Richards admitting Ed was right on predators – though with a mealy-mouthed qualification: “We can now make these arguments with confidence because they are on the right side of public opinion.”

      They haven’t yet realised that leadership can help shape opinion and that with good leadership we can even be ahead of the game. Still, at least they appear to be coming to their senses – better late than never…

      • treborc

         Ahead of the game would be nice, but does that not mean you have to see the problem before it ends up in the Sun or daily Mail.

        • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

          I don’t recall the Sun or the Mail referring to predatory capitalism before Ed’s conference speech.

          • treborc

             Does anyone think we have had the banking crises, we had MP expenses, we have had people lying about wars we have had sleaze , and then Miliband talk about predatory capitalism  for god sake.

            we have had Thatcher Blair and Brown, now we have Cameron and we are to think Miliband is the saviour.

            It been the worse period in history leaving us with this mess.

  • Bill Lockhart

    The wind is blowing in his direction- and Miliband is nothing but a weather-vane. There is nothing whatever “risky” or brave about reactive opportunism.

    • Will Slater

      Disagree. He could just tout the same line as the PM and Deputy PM and then nothing would happen. Then you could really say that they are all cut from the same cloth.

      So really you are saying that he should say nothing? So that things like this get swept under the rug and ignored? Or would you then call him an ineffective opposition Leader?

      Can’t have it both ways

      • Bill Lockhart

        I’m saying that side-foot tap-ins to an open goal from 4 feet are not difficult, brave or particularly praiseworthy.

        • treborc

           See you never played football, no such thing as an easy tap in because you have to be in that position to  score.

          But I actually think your right, labour is looking for the easy arguments and not the difficult one.

          • Cari_esky

            I think Labour is taking a hard line.  The risk of the banking sector turning against Labour is immense.  Like the Murdoch Empire Ed has risked the full wrath of his press at the next election by going against Murdoch.  
            This isn’t an easy option.  The City is a powerful force in the UK and could do damage to Labour.  The opportunity is there, that’s politics but it is what is done with the opportunity that counts. 

          • treborc

             ”11 of his 32 meetings were with News International, whereas 25 of David
            Cameron’s 74 meetings were with News International editors or
            executives, including one meeting with Rupert Murdoch, one with James
            Murdoch, one with James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks together, and one
            with Brooks on her own”.

            It a problem the scandal broke and Labour now  trying to come out white clean it was not me sir.

          • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

            You’re right there trebs (re footy!). Only an abject amateur would fall for the ‘easy goal’ misconception. Of course, an adept player can make it look easy – just think of Wellbeck’s magnifecent tap-in against Sweden in the Euros.

            Our mate Bill probably thinks Usain Bolt has taken an easy option by choosing to specialise in 100 metre sprints rather than 26 mile marathons. Bloody amateurs!

    • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

      But your chap Cameron doesn’t have the insight or courage to lead – he’s ill-equipped for the PM’s job. Cameron responds much too late when events, driven by others, are running beyond his control. Cameron wastes every leadership opportunity – all he can manage is desperation.

      • treborc

        The fact is the public are sick of politicians jumping on band wagons, and I’m not just talking about labour, all parties do it.

        Labour needs to get it’s act together the fight is not about Libor it’s not even about Murdock, it’s about how do you get this country out of the mess it’s in, today,Tories are saying we must have more austerity, more cuts, this is where the people want labour fighting for them not just people who are hard working, but people who would like to be hard working.

        Liam Fox is asking for loser ties with the EU, and to be honest he might win that argument unless labour can show us a different way

    • JoeDM

       And Balls is now keeping his head down and you can understand why.   After all, he was the Treasury minister responsible for Financial Services during the ‘light touch’ regulation policy.

      • Cari_esky

        Whilst many Tories were working for banks during their time in opposition.  

        • http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

          Don’t forget – bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity moguls bankroll the Conservatives.

          http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/revealed-how-the-city-bankrolls-tory-party-2208668.html 

          • treborc

             Brown de-regulated to such a degree that banks operated in a kind of
            financial anarchy that saw once proud institutions brought to their
            knees.  Initially all looked well as Brown lauded the casino
            capitalists, describing them as his “inspiration”.

            In 2006 Brown attended a dinner and gave a speech in which he publicly
            praised them. “I congratulate you” said Brown “on these remarkable
            achievements, an era that history will record as the beginning of a new
            golden age for the City of London.”
            This glorious success, Brown added, was achieved through “a deep and abiding belief in open markets”.

            I suspect Blair was after some of that funding

      • John Ruddy

        Indeed, and Laboru has apologised. Why havnt the tories apologised for demanding ever lighter regulation?

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

      Ed raised the issue first of all. Mind you, nothing anyone Labour did would be right for you

  • aracataca

    This is of course what has been (and is) happening so good analysis there Mark. In that sense EM has been (and is) playing a blinder. The problem might be to over rely on this tactic/strategy but at the same time it would be crackers to announce a whole sledge of policies 3 years before an election. In the end people need a limited number of simple policies that will immediately help or be beneficial to them and these should be announced nearer to the election (IMHO).

  • DanMcCurry

    Ed is better off calling for an enquiry, as this is a no lose intervention. If Cameron doesn’t set up one, Ed can blame him for it. If he does, Ed can claim credit. 
    It’s not the same with Bob Diamond, who has only come into the job recently. He has co-operated with the Libor enquiry, more so than other banks, and there is no obvious successor. The City isn’t a public body. They won’t easily roll over and make themselves the quarry of political point scoring. With many more banks to be implicated, the City will be pressuring Diamond to stay, for fear of a bloodbath of Chief Execs. 

    It’s not advisable for Ed Miliband to end up in a stand off with the City. 

    Ed needs to ensure that in future, the City realises that criminal charges are likely to be brought for dishonest conduct. My blog below describes how this would come about. 

    http://danmccurry.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/all-equal-in-the-eyes-of-the-law-except-barclays/

    • Rburns

      Three letters: FBI

  • Mr Chippy

    Ed,

    What I like about your leadership is that you appear to learn lessons well.

    Firstly can we tackle this ‘consensus’ that there is no regulations or law against what has happened in Barclays.  This is an attempt to allow the perps to get off scot free. There are plenty of general provisions which means this market manipulation could be actioned if there is the will to do so.

    Secondly, escalate the pressure. State if Cameron does not want to do anything then Labour will let the people speak at the next election. Labour will promise to tackle this abuse when in office even if this means retrospective action.

    Now for other correspondents. As an ageing punk and I have an appreciation for the Situationists. Anyone for citizen arrests of Diamond et al?

     

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