If you turn to page 10 of today’s Independent on Sunday there’s a small picture of me with my answer to the question: how is Ed Miliband doing? and what should he doing more of/ less of? The online version is here. Although it’s understandable that it was cut due to space limitations in the print media and our soundbite age, the full quote I supplied them with goes like this:
Miliband is proving the doubters wrong. It’s Cameron who’s behind in the polls and facing a threat to his leadership. Ed is the unflashy tortoise in the race for No 10 but he’s on track to win as the government keeps stumbling on successive policy disasters.
Manchester has special significance for Ed Miliband, it’s where he became leader. Part of the reason he won the leadership is that in years leading up to 2010 he dazzled members with unscripted speeches at conferences of internal Labour groupings like Progress and Compass demonstrating his likeability, bold ideas, passion, thoughtfulness wit, humour and principles. Thousands of party members saw this but the public haven’t yet. This week presents a great opportunity for him to present himself to the electorate at large who are still getting to know him. I’d advise him to be himself more and not be stifled with the demands of the job ie thinking he has to be the stereotypical stuffy suit that people might equate with “being Prime Ministerial”.
Good luck to Ed and all delegates this week. The fact that recent polls have given Labour significant leads eg 10% in today’s Observer and 15% in some surveys is cause for cheer. As Political Betting also points out Ed M leads Cameron by 2% on trustworthiness & 21% on being more in touch with ordinary people according to YouGov.
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October 18, 2012 at 6:10 pm
Robin Taylor
Rupa – I didn’t vote for Ed but in one sense I’m glad he won, as his stated opposition to the Iraq war has helped to draw a line under that shameful epsiode of the party’s history. I also think he deserves the right to lead the party into the next election regardless of what the polls say, and should be able to fully expect discipline and support from all sections of the party. Let’s favour it, there is no obvious successor and I don’t think we would be that much further ahead in the polls if his brother had won the leadership. (After all, David has his own idiocyncracies which the media would have leaped upon – as anyone who remembers the banana photo will readily testify). Having said that, I don’t really share your optimism about the party’s prospects. Remember we are at mid-term and there is always a “bounce-back” to the governing party as the general election approaches. If you look at the four Tory parliaments between 1979-97, the swing back to the Conservatives from the mid-term point to the subsequent general election was, respectively, 9.6%: 8.4%: 9.8%: 9.5%. Any of these, if applied to the current poll ratings, would yield a comfortable popular vote victory for the Tories – and possibly an overall majority.
October 18, 2012 at 6:11 pm
Robin Taylor
Let’s favour it = let’s face it.