主播大秀

听




听

Ed Miliband, one year into his leadership of Britain鈥檚 opposition Labour Party, has his work cut out to dispel doubts about his ability to propel Labour back to power.
Voted out after 13 years in office, Labour will be looking to Miliband to set out their alternative vision to repair Britain鈥檚 economic & social problems.
After a year as leader, I don't feel that I know Ed Miliband, or more importantly where he stands.
Tony Blair & Gordon Brown still loom large over British politics. Miliband limbs along in their shadow. Ed has not managed to get into the spot-light. Poll: 57% of British adults have no idea what Ed stands for (ComRes Poll, last week). His slightly awkward presence & nasal diction don't help the situation.
This conference was his first chance to establish his public credentials. While Britain鈥檚 governing Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition struggles to coax the economy into life, Labour under Miliband has yet to establish a clear alternative policy, though I feel he might have done himself proud to support & content for the Financial Transaction Tax, which would certainly help the financially-strapped taxpayer.
He said the 鈥渂ig theme鈥� in Liverpool will be the need to 鈥渞ip up the rule book鈥� & take on 鈥渁 political consensus that needs to be challenged and changed鈥�. Excuse me, but what does this mean? His clarification in the New Statesman Magazine offered no help: 鈥渢he squeezed middle, what鈥檚 happened to young people, responsibility at the top and bottom鈥� were part of 鈥渁n economic and political settlement of some decades鈥� that had to be rewritten. Excuse me again, but what does this mean?
Despite some underwhelming performances in parliament, Miliband did manage to strike a blow in July with a strong intervention on the newspaper phone hacking scandal, forcing PM Cameron into launching a judge-led inquiry. However, he did not maintain the momentum during the riots which rocked England in August.
Another Poll (The Times) 2/3s of voters, including 49% of Labour voters, said they found it difficult to imagine him as prime minister.
Despite receiving the crucial support of the unions last year, he managed to annoy them this month by telling their annual congress that their planned strikes were premature. Furthermore, in Liverpool he proposed changing the rules for electing leaders 鈥� a move which will largely water down the unions鈥� influence.

At the Labour Party Conference, Ed Miliband divided the UK鈥檚 companies into 鈥減roducers鈥� like Rolls-Royce & 鈥減redators鈥� such as RBS and suggested the latter should be punished by the country鈥檚 tax system.
This statement seemed perfectly timed for Jos茅 Manuel Barroso's (President of the European Commission) proposal that financial transactions in the eurozone be taxed, arguing that, since the public sector had contributed more than 鈧�4,000bn in guarantees to the banking sector to support it through the crisis, it was now time for the industry to repay its debt.
Therefore, I was disappointed that Ed Milliband did not follow-up his argument with support for an FTT. This one topic would have made his speech meaningful as well as opening a meaningful debate over the issue.
For those who say that financial companies would move away, I say so what. Do we really want to retain huge investment banks whose products offer little to the general welfare of society, whose products are often non-transparent if not questionable?
I say let them go.

All party conferences are the same - they are the voice of the establishment telling us what to think, and what our agenda is to be.

They are, and have always been, all wrong of course. They are not us, yet they tell us that they are!

The disjoint between the reality of the mass of people's lives and the perception of this by the establishment grows and shrinks over time. Generally when times are good and there is food to eat, a roof to live under and jobs to do we don't much care about what the establishment says.

However, today at the start of a Long Depression, like that of the 1870s the stresses in the establishment will grow, possibly to breaking point - then we will get at minimum a new SDP or, more likely, something much more damaging for the establishment. This reality is dawning on the establishment, yet that are powerless to stop this happening; they are powerless to be able to protect their power!

The more autocratic the establishment the more likely that the change to a new order will be traumatic - as can be seen everywhere in history - let us all fervently hope that the establishment re-connects with the people and stops tilting at irrelevant windmills, but I very much fear that this may not happen.

The reason for my fear is that the economic difficulties of the present Long Depression where multi-generational poverty is forced on the people will be so destructive to the nature of society that a revolutionary ethos may be the winning philosophy. In the end revolution is all about economics and our whole economic philosophy is broken far more seriously today than it was in the 1930s because the debt has yet to be deflated and until that happens there cannot be a recovery in jobs - which in the end is all that matters.

It is not all bread and circuses - there is an underlying reality that is inescapable - no matter how well the media is controlled and managed.

Maybe he is not enthusiastic about working for the bankers. The current leadership has no clue as to what to do beyond saving the wealth of the wealthy. None of them have a plan that will benefit the middle class and spur the economy. When you are on the wrong road it matters little what turn you make.

ghostofsichuan

--- How does it feel to have been ahead of history ?

-- The 麓Occupy Wall Street麓 -- is on its way ?