Next leader of the Labour Party should be.....

[jonno_2004]

Get rid of vested interests and be done with this petty squabbling.

Hear, hear!

[drat01]

Very good speech there - loved the "pop idol politics" reference :-)

[Richard]

Very good speech there

It is not often I read things on here that shock me but this did, I mean I was expecting you to say it was a crap speech and totally worthless

[tonyh29]

loved the "pop idol politics" reference

did they show a montage of all of Gordon's appearance on the various shows as he said it ?

Very good speech there

had to check it wasn't 1st April for a second but since you asked :winkold:

He lacks charisma , cant tell a gag and it was full of contradictions ..oh and it went on too long

Labourites must be weeping about now

[drat01]

:-) - oh the Tory boys are so predictable and the irony of Tony's comments following the pop idol politics thing.

So come on then rather than following down your usual anti-Labour stance educate us as to what was wrong with the speech.

You say contradictions, I am interested to see where? - he clearly took the piss out of people who called him that and stopped the Red-Ed silliness and showed that the bollox about being a poodle of the Unions was, hmmm what's the word? - oh yeah bollox. Loved the references to Ashcroft paying for the Tory party, and many other things in there. As for going on too long? :-)

[tonyh29]

the Tory boys are so predictable

Pot have you met Mr Kettle ? I don't visit the "Tory " thread any longer as a couple of posters ( not you btw) could only add personal abuse instead of anything remotely interesting , but I wager one would be hard pushed to find anything positive about the Tory party in there from you ...

educate us as to what was wrong with the speech

i already did

also think you misunderstand the word Irony ... it's legendary status on VT how you tried to score with that phrase "Pop Idol politics" and Gordon appeared on the show the very next day with the sort of timing that Liam Ridgewell shows when trying to clear the ball off his own goal line :-)

Loved the references to Ashcroft paying for the Tory party

If only there was a word beginning with H that I could think of for one party accusing another party over financing .. maybe I'll ask Sir Ronald Cohen what he feels about the subject ..oh bugger he appears to be busy I'll ask Sir Christopher Ondaatje instead ... really time you gave up on this Ashcroft fixation it's just showing the dare I say Hypocrisy of it all

[drat01]

Ah I see Tony so basically you posted for effect and really didn't listen to what was said nor did you really object to it?

So was it full of contradictions, if so what were they?

What did you take on his Iraq statement?

What about the rate of change for the deficit reduction?

What about the comments re strikes?

what about the comments re agreeing with policies from the Gvmt?

I appreciate as a long standing Tory supporter some of the policy ideas will be totally against your principles, but is that what you mean by contradiction?

As for the ConDem thread - Oh the hypocrisy (:-) ) I remember you and some of the other more vocal Tory posters who would try and show any article form the press where Labour were seemingly wrong. The fact that this Gvmt is now being shown up, even by its biggest supporters is not worthy of a comment? Oh I see its that old rule of the rules have changed is it?

Laughable really but not unexpected - it seems that rather than discuss the content of what is being said we return to the how people look idea

p.s. Aschroft being reported in the Mail, the BBC running programmes about him, it seems that you would rather deflect and try and associate others than comment about someone who is widely though of as being a tax fiddler

[tonyh29]

As for the ConDem thread

i left it because a poster had nothing more to say other than all Tories are rocket polishers repeatedly , like i said it wasn't you but it just seemed pointless being in a thread if that is all that can be said .. I don't bother going in there but i'm sure i can guess the content being posted

the BBC running programmes about him

I'll think you will find they didn't :winkold:

it seems that you would rather deflect and try and associate others than comment about someone who is widely though of as being a tax fiddler

Whooosh that was the sound of things going over your head .... I'll try another approach for you

If you drive your red car at 50 mph through a 30 mph zone ... can you really stand there and criticise someone else for driving their blue car through the same 30mph zone at 50 mph .. and when you reach the conclusion that it would be a bit hypercritical to do so then finally the penny may drop regarding the whole party financing thing

content of what is being said we return to the how people look idea

who has made any reference in this thread to Ed looking like Beaker from the Muppets ?

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

I thought it was a good speech for someone new to it all, bit of unwarranted criticism floating about if you ask me. David Cameron was a bit shit to begin but grew into it over time, Ed will too. The tory press (and the sheep) will happily forget this for the time being.

He did put his foot down with the Unions though which was nice to see. But, partially because he isn't a great speaker, I forget a great deal of it already.

I've a feeling this will sum up his time in charge.

[avfc89]

I met DM in Manchester; he seems very upbeat and positive about the future considering his disapointment on Saturday.

[Awol]

I met DM in Manchester; he seems very upbeat and positive about the future considering his disapointment on Saturday.

Is that why he had a dig at Harperson and left conference early?

[bickster]

I've kept my silence over this Labour Party Leadership thingy (well mainly apart from the odd comment in jest) as by and large it has nothing to do with me, so I'm saying this as a sort of interested bystander. How can a party have a leadership election where, the majority of party members and the majority of its parliamentary representatives didn't want the leader. See now I'm not against the Unions per se, they have their place but allowing them to have a say in the Labour Party Leadership election is just daft. What has just happened is the unions have elected the leader of the Labour Party, not the Labour Party members, nor even the MP's (those people elected by the people to represent the party). Something not quite right there, it doesn't make for a great leadership when most of the people under your leadership didn't actually want you there, nor did the wider party want you either. Ed Milliband is leading a bunch of people who didn't want him to lead them, can't make for good party relations that, theres always going to be someone against you but when they are in the majority before you've started, you're on a hiding to nothing.

If Labour can get rid of Clause IV, they can dump the unions from the electoral process for the Labour Party

[LJRM050389]

The only bit of the election process that needs altering is the MP/MEP section, where their vote is worth 60 times mine as a Labour member (ok Im a bit different as I have a union and an affiliated society vote too) but that is all that needs to change!

Those unions that vote opt to pay the Labour Party fee, so should get a say!

[Jon]

Looks nailed on that Dave Milly will not want to "serve" under his Brother now.

Sad loss for Labour that. Top politician. Looks like he's going to walk away.

[Ads]

I don't know if top is the right way to describe him, but I have some sympathy for him. I kick Ed in the nads and give him a Chinese Burn at the next family meet up.

As for the speech, obviously the style and ability to deliver speeches to large conference audiences is not there yet. However I would say that is to be expected and it's something you'd imagine he'll develop given time. It was interesting to hear him distance himself both from the past and the unions, so we will have to wait and see how he defines himself.

[Awol]

Sad loss for Labour that. Top politician. Looks like he's going to walk away.

I would have agreed with that before the speech yesterday, despite David being tainted (imo) by British complicity in torture while he was Foreign Secretary. Miliband Jnr deserves credit for some of the things he said, wrong on Iraq, wrong on immigration, wrong on the economy. Mea Culpa for thier previous cock ups that was necessary in order to move on.

This in particular was a great line: "We must always remember that British liberties were hard fought and hard won over hundreds of years... too often we seemed casual about them." Agreed, Ed.

Also said the right things about union strike action, but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating there. If he's serious then again he deserves credit.

He needs to work on his presentation of ideas (not spin but developing his ability to articulate them in a less nasal, dry manner) but overall a 7/10 performance imo, which is far better than I was expecting.

Be interesting to see what unfolds now.

[tonyh29]

Having driven up to Leicester today I've had 5 live on in the car

Peter Haines interviewed first words were what a fantastic speech ... 5 mins into the interview Haines then let slip that he wrote a lot of it , nothing like modesty is there :-)

Ed was asked a few questions which he ducke quite well in true politician fashion .. The question on Palestine was ducked like a pro

When asked which Tory MP he admired the most he answered none of them and at that point he just made himself look petty and a tad silly

Interestingly the commentators that didn't work for the Daily Mirror or were a Union rep all said that his speech was full of contradictions ... Was like he was trying to hard to please everybody , but I guess at this stage at least he hasn't called anyone a bigot so Labour must be happy so far....

[blandy]

...How can a party have a leadership election where, the majority of party members and the majority of its parliamentary representatives didn't want the leader. See now I'm not against the Unions per se, they have their place but allowing them to have a say in the Labour Party Leadership election is just daft.

If Labour can get rid of Clause IV, they can dump the unions from the electoral process for the Labour Party

The Labour party was set up by the Unions, the Labour party is funded in fairly large part by the Unions. They are inextricably linked. The labour party is supposed to represent the interests of (cliche) "ordinary working people" [union members] on the political stage, It's supposed to be a counter to the strong Tory representation of big business interests, which often run counter to those of the workers they employ.

I know all that is just a part of what the parties do and represent, and I know there are less unionised workers now than in times past, but there are still millions of people in unions, paying the political levy (which entitles the individuals to vote in leadership elections for Labour).

It's possible the mechanism could be tweaked or changed, but I think that Unions should have a say, via the votes of their members who choose to pay the political levy, in who is elected to lead the party whose aims they support and fund.

[Demitri_C]

He did put his foot down with the Unions though which was nice to see. But, partially because he isn't a great speaker, I forget a great deal of it already.

its easy saying that though, lets see when they start their un-necessary strikes what ed's take on it will be. the unions got him in so they wont be pleased if he opposes them and i doubt he will.wait and see

[drat01]

Sad loss for Labour that. Top politician. Looks like he's going to walk away.

I would have agreed with that before the speech yesterday, despite David being tainted (imo) by British complicity in torture while he was Foreign Secretary. Miliband Jnr deserves credit for some of the things he said, wrong on Iraq, wrong on immigration, wrong on the economy. Mea Culpa for thier previous cock ups that was necessary in order to move on.

This in particular was a great line: "We must always remember that British liberties were hard fought and hard won over hundreds of years... too often we seemed casual about them." Agreed, Ed.

Also said the right things about union strike action, but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating there. If he's serious then again he deserves credit.

He needs to work on his presentation of ideas (not spin but developing his ability to articulate them in a less nasal, dry manner) but overall a 7/10 performance imo, which is far better than I was expecting.

Be interesting to see what unfolds now.

Jon

Happy to give credit where it is due, fair comments from you there sir.