Sunday, July 04, 2010

Oh Dear, Mr Miliband (D)

I've just read the most ridiculous and poorly-argued sub-A Level politics essay by Miliband the Elder in the New Statesman. It's all about poor Gordon Brown drowning in an Anglocentric media, English Parliament not the answer blah blah. And when he writes “I don't want to engage in a Dutch auction on immigration”, is this seriously without irony or is he being post-ironic or a poster-boy-above-irony? I was actually interested to see what he had to say, but really..... If he wants a media career instead, I can help him with article construction – he could do with learning how to storyboard his arguments for a start.

Having said all that, I have my doubts whether he wrote a word of it. I suspect it was written by a junior staffer. At least, I hope it was for his sake.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Agreed!

Irene said...

Can't stand the man.

He is so far up his own a**e that should he win the leadership it will mean labour are out of contention for at least 10-15 years IMO

Of course that applies to all the other contenders!

Doktorb said...

Did I really just see the header "Cap doesn't fit" and "Dutch auction" in the same skim-read? Is this article written with a smirk?

Houdini said...

Labour is well placed. The Tories have no serious presence in Scotland; the Lib Dems are barely credible across swaths of the UK (think of Wales).It is only Labour - with its MPs, MSPs, AMs and thousands of councillors across Great Britain - that can speak for the whole nation.

This is what me have a double take and realise that not only is he a useless writer, but delusional too, and complacent just after the disaster of the election.

I thought about fisking it bit by bit because there is so much dross there, but you are right and it is the whole that is fiskable as a single piece. It is hard to credit that this was written by a man who was at the heart of Government for 13 years and only just lost an election so dismally.

Unknown said...

Harsh

Bob Piper said...

Perhaps in return he could explain to you where you were going wrong in your efforts to become a Member of Parliament.

Tom Mein said...

After reading the article, it is clear that Westminster must bring forward legislation to remove the Scottish MP's.
They have their own parliament, let them rule themselves

Tapestry said...

Normally he eggs his rants with hate-filled bile, insulting traditional Polish Catholic views, calling them homophobes, racists, Nazi-supporters and murderers.

He's realised since the election that this muck-raking fare doesn't cut it with British audiences, so here we find him trying a fresh approach, having a go at English nationalism.

You can picture every Liberal Democrat drooling on his every sub-O Level word, wishing against wish that they'd teamed up with Labour instead of Conservative - not.

This is definitely the Post New Labour B team, the dregs of a long drunk half pint.

Anonymous said...

"sub A level politics "

but isn't that the level he normally operates on ?

Cynic said...

Listened to the papers review on radio 4 today just after 9. Depressing stuff. All arguing that these cuts v are terrible...hpow people will suffer...tens of thousands of job losses .......wicked Tories etc.

Now I agree.; The cuts we need to make will be terrible. But there was not one sensible acknowledgement that we are almost bust and cannot afford these services because Gordon squandered all our money.

The Coalition really need to lay this one absolutely firmly at Labour's door. Perhaps every civil servant laid off or made redundant should get a letter apologising but explaining what state Labour left the public finances in and highlighting that they had planned over £20bn of cuts anyway .

It might also suggest that they write to Gordon Brown, Alastair Darling and their Union to complain

DeeDee99 said...

If it really was written by Miliband, it deserves a 'Must do better' comment.

Still, it had enough 'big words' and pushed quite a few of the buttons which our Scottish neighbours love so much - so it will shore up his vote north of the border, which was probably what he intended (having spent the last few weeks criticising their beloved Moron sulking away in Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath).

The UK certainly does need standardised constituency boundaries and the gerry-mandered devolution settlement re-visited so that English voters are not discriminated against. We preferably need an English Parliament, but at the very least need English votes for English laws and a reduction in the number of MPs from the devolved regions - especially Scotland.

Gareth said...

He doesn't want an English parliament?

Does he want a Scottish parliament and Welsh parliament I wonder, or is this some sort of anglophobia manifesting itself whereby only England should go without its own parliament and the opportunity to vote for its own parliament?

Does he even think that England should have the opportunity to vote for an English parliament, irrespective of what he thinks?

Tapestry said...

The choice is between deep cuts to government departments, not to services particularly, and high rates of interest.

There's no competition. Lower interest rates will stimulate growth, when the economy is ready. Higher ones will kill it.

Alfie said...

He wrote alright...

David likes to think of himself as a bit of an intellectual giant - after all, he's been told just how brilliant he is since he was in short trousers (just like Gordon Brown).... And just like Brown, he is actually as thick as a brick, with the nouse and common sense of a gnat (and that's not very much at all).

Mind you, after watching Andy Burnham's appalling performance on 'This Week' it appears there isn't a brain cell between the current crop of Labour leadership candidates...

Houdini said...

To Bob Piper, obviously an unflinching Labour acolyte who has only lately decided to raise his head...

Perhaps in return he could explain to you where you were going wrong in your efforts to become a Member of Parliament.

Yes, he could extoll Iains father to go back and become a delusional, over bearing, over priveleged rich kid that espoused a discredited and stupid ideology then pass that idiocy on to his son, another priveleged rich public schoolboy who has done nothing in his priveleged life than milk a position out of the working mans party, supported by delusional acolytes like you.

At least Iain has paid into the system unlike you and Milliband who have spent thier lives sucking the life out of the taxpayer.

Now crawl back under your stone union parasite.