Thursday, March 29, 2007
'I Can' is Miliband's Leadership Pitch
Now if THIS article by David Miliband in the Daily Telegraph isn't a leadership pitch, then I'm a Dutchman. It's just the sort of article which people write when they are sussing out whether they have the support and the ideas to attract support. He's using the slogan of 'I Can' to map out his ideas. The reply from Gordon Brown may well be along the lines of 'You Can't' - or a similar word...
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Let's see....
I can mess up the Farm Payments and still be promoted to Foreign Secretary.
I can be fired twice as a minsiter and still get a cushy number in Brussels.
I can claim to be totally ignorant about the £350,000 payment to my husband which repaid a six figure loan I had taken out weeks before, and still be put in charge of the £10 bn Olympics.
I can mention all the tax cuts in my Budget speech, but fail to mention all of the tax increases that make the Budget Revenue neutral.
Who knows?
My only concern is that thoughtful Cabinet Ministers like Miliband, who has been involved in wider debates about the direction of the Labour Party since the early 90s should have the opportunity to make these kind of statements.
I know it suits your agenda to play up the leadership question, but if we make it too difficult and uncomfortable for the brightest figures to give their opinion because of constant conjecture about ulterior motives, then we will be left with the less thoughtful (cf. Charles Clarke).
Miliband is clearly ambitious, but he has plenty of time to reach the top.
OK then, usual suspects, start venting your spleens...
I had a dream the other night that David Miliband launched a full throated leadership campaign. I think I’ve been reading too much of this Blog!
Meanwhile, over in The Guardian, we have an article by Charles Clarke which concludes with the extraordinary assertion:
"It's time for Labour politicians to stand up and address the only question which matters, both for us and the country: how can Labour win again?"
Did you get that Iain? He thinks the ONLY QUESTION which matters for the country is how can Labour win again.
No wonder politicians are held in such low esteem.
Nice to see that you are finally catching up to my announcement that Miliband has launched his leadership bid. What with the number one political blogger in tatters and the number two on the slow boat to China...
Jailhouselawyer, hardly. I have been writing about this for several weeks, which a cursory site search will confirm. By the way, I have deleted two of your comments on the Guido thread for possible libel. Just so you know.
I can't believe Miliband could be so stupid as to launch a leadership bid. Iain, do you think that he'd even get 44 MPs to back him?
There you are, I just knew he was part of the Blair Ditch Project last September!
Seems like South Shields is going to be under the spotlight according to Conservative Home too, sadly there is no longer a socialist blogger in town, even he has lost heart in the cause!
(I hope Miliband does find the support of 44, I'm sure Cameron would rather face the Wonk than Gordon Brown.)
You know Iain, if you've got comment moderation on could you stop jailhousemurder and Ireland hogging every thread to talk about themselves...? It is ruining the discussion.
Miliband is not setting out a leadership stall, just setting out a demand for a post-Blair senior Cabinet job, IMO.
He'd be insane to think he could take over at this stage and win. The prize for the ambitious Labourite is leadership post election and post Gordon.
Reminds me of a gag that's on a famous Sinatra album. He tells the audience that Sammy Davis Jnr's new show called "Yes I can" aired the night before. Sinatra called him up up after and said "No you cannot".
Who exactly is Miliband trying to persuade - the electorate or himself?
It's clear from Miliband's new 'I can' campaign PR image that he's as locked inside the Blairite~Brownite Big Brother elitist dream fantasy as Brown and Blair are.
Just like the Nasty Boys Gordo and Tone, Mili surrounds himself with PR soundbites about collective action and empowering the people. Yet all the while he's dreaming of stuffing as much power and money as he can grab from the people into his already burgeoning coffers.
Mili's oblivious to the fact that his 'I can' is really an I can't, i.e. that he is nothing and can do nothing without us, the people who earn the dough and satisfy his greedy fat cat delusions - for now.
Auntie Flo'
I think he should launch a bid.
The infighting in NL would be amazing.
And at the end of the day, he's still a Mr Bean-A-Like, and creeps out the ladies.
One recurring thought I've had is this:
Isn't Blair only really going because Brown and his followers are forcing his hand? But the Blairites are still looking for someone like Milliband they can draft in to stitch up Brown.
So if their aim is to shaft Brown, why doesn't Blair just do it himself and not quit?
Look, Mili, go and play your power games somewhere else and leave the grown ups in peace, there's a good little lad.
Auntie Flo'
Hi Auntie Flo...XXXXXX
Of course Iain has followed the invertebrate Millipedes weasel-gob efforts to broker himself on to the cabinet , which is all he is up to.
I think Clark will be the man to have the Show Trial by which they can disguise the accession of Broon. He is the most Left Friendly Blairite and has been running around bigging himslef up for a while now.
I read the Millipede rubbish in the New Statesman he really is an oily arse kissing bucket of mazola and his apple for teacher writing style is loathsome enough for capital punishment alone
I Need
I want
and now its....I can
He is a F----Child ...and strikes me as being wait for it
WORSE THAN BLAIR
In fact as we enter the long Edwardian fin de siecle of the Blair Period and the prospect of the outright Socialism . I find myself thinking was Blair really that bad ? Ok Abroad and after all ,that awful Scottish mouth breather forced him to get rid of nice Frank Field.
I fear that Blair is merely the frying pan and we are about to get out ........eeeek
The signs were all there when he issued his Labour Supporters email a few weeks ago - incidentally how your chipmunk started her unofficial campaign.
I think the threat by Gordon Brown to promote his brother, perhaps over him, may be all too much.
Setting Brown up to take the blame for May's elections has been a clever move by anon Miliband supporters.
Lets see what the Brown response is...
Don't you need a strong backbone to do the Can Can?
One should never understimate the appeal of marxists and crypto-marxists who offer utopia to the thickest third of the population. The power and privilege for themselves and vassal status for everyone else comes after the votes have been counted usually for the last time. It worked for the Bolsheviks and countless other 'popular revolutionary movements' and it always ends the same way.
You ain't Dutch Iain.
From a headline that points out that he is younger than Gordo he shows rxactly how the catchphrase is replacing thought. His greatest profundity is to notice the existence of the net & that Korea has an online newspaper. No mention of introducing carbon ration books though so he is learning.
It is a leadership pitch, and I am a Dutchman...
Hmm..Simon Hoggart has a far more accurate take on this in today's Guardian. He won't run.
But he has to mark himself down as a potential future leader, so that Brown will want him inside the tent, rather than outside pi$$!ng in..
Iain - have you actually read Milliband's article. It's totally unintelligible bollocks, full of vapid NuLab soundbites, leaving me at the end feeling...Eh? You need to get GCHQ to decrypt it into English. I think he is saying something about public services. But I could be wrong
The man is an idiot
"I Can" has form as the failed jargon slogan for an online initiative by the BBC which didn't get the desired results and has now been through a re-branding exercise and has emerged as the 'Action Network'.
There may be a lesson in there for Mr Miliband, but it escapes me for the moment..
I have met Miliband several times, first when he was Minister for Schools and I was working as a supply teacher. I told him (truthfully, at that point) that the only school in which I had ever worked and to which I would never return was in his constituency, and I asked him what he intended to do about it.
He just giggled, and moved on to the next person.
Look here, van Dale, it wasn't. Wasn't, wasn't, wasn't.
The Child Miliband.
Me First and the gimme gimmes - singing Milli's anthem?
I believe I can fly....whoo!
I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away
I believe I can soar
See me runnin' through that open door
I believe I can fly (I can fly!)
I believe I can fly (I can fly!)
I believe I can fly
If I just spread my wings (I can fly!)
I can fly (I can fly!)
I can fly (I can fly!)
I can fly (I can fly!)
Hey, if I just spread my wings
I can fly .....(I can fly!) whoo!!
(I can fly!)
fly............Whoo...ooooooo..er..wasssup?
AAAAaaagggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......
Crrraaasssshhh!!!
And the real thing on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV3XQcCyyPc&mode=related&search=
Auntie Flo'
Anonymous 1:54 said...
Don't you need a strong backbone to do the Can Can?
Wikipedia states that cancan meant "tittle-tattle" or "scandal", hence a scandalous dance. Most appropriate for a nulabber.
And doesn't Moulin Rouge mean 'Red Milly'?
Perfect :)
Did I get deleted here ?I don`t recall saying anyhting all that bad ...I `m sure i posted though
Perhaps "You canny" might be even more appropriate?
The Milipede is standing for the Labour leadership - just not yet. At the moment he would be toast - Brown is the accepted choice on nearly everyone in the Labour party, in the sense they will vote him in. Whether that is with gritted teath or not is another matter.
So Brown will get the job with about 90% of the MPs voting for him, and a similar proportion from the party at large.
After a honyemoon period, it will be clear that Brownism isn't a return to Socialism of the old style. The left of the party will be upset. The Blairities will be upset just because he is there.
Brown himself will continue his steamroller behaviour - can't quite see him doing Cabinet government. Pretty soon he will be supported only by Brownites. Sound familiar.
Meanwhile, in the Really Real World, Labour poll rating will continue down. Tony & chums will have some awkward questions to answer about the Loans for Loardships - with questions about Gordon signing off the Labour Party accounts. The Sith Institute will probably lose it's charitable status. As an election draws near, the bulk of the parlimentry party will realise that they face the chop. Most of them have no chance outside politics - if they lose, they will have a tough time getting a job....
Enter stage left.... The Millipede. Who has been nice and loyal - but not too loyal. Written some interesting stuff - created Millipedism (definitely not Blairism, of course)... He relecutantly dethrones Brown and saves the day.....
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