Red Ed?
It didn't take long for the Conservative attack dogs and right wing media to lay into Ed Miliband once it was announced he was leader. Labelling him "Red Ed" and claiming the unions now have a hold over him.
Headlines have appeared such as:
'Red' Ed Miliband says New Labour is dead but vows to stand up for the 'squeezed middle' Daily Mail
RED Ed Miliband was elected Labour leader last night after snatching the crown from under his big brother's nose. & Left-winger Ed, 40, was catapulted into the job thanks to the backing of union barons who urged activists to vote for him. News of the World
The fact it that there is nothing "Red" about Ed Miliband. He is a centre-left politician, admittedly to the left of his brother David and some of the Blairite old-guard, but this is not a bad thing. The policies Ed has proposed are not leftist policies which will alienate the electorate.
A graduate tax will speak to many middle class as well as working class families in the UK who are worried about increasing student debt, debt which may well increase significant if tuition fees rise later this year.
Saying it was wrong to go to war with Iraq is not a leftist policy. The majority of the country now believe it was wrong, and I believe one of the reasons why David lost was that he continued to defend it.
Ed wants the banking industry to make a bigger contribution to reducing the deficit. This is hardly radical, and again the majority of the country will agree, especially once the cuts really kick in after the spending review.
It is rare for me to quote Norman Tebbit, but he was right in his Telegraph blog when he said:
The narrowness of David Miliband’s defeat and his brother Ed’s victory says more about the closeness of their views than any deep split in the Labour Party at the present time. Ed is the man most likely to get Labours five million lost voters back to the polls. He is unlikely to neglect the chance to feed off the discontented Lib Dem supporters, but he will not neglect to strengthen the party’s natural constituency.
I think this is why the Tories and right wing press are worried. Ed really does have the potential to win back lost voters, particularly the many who stop supporting Labour after the Iraq invasion.
He is also helping to continue the rise in Labour party membership, as a recent @uklabour tweet said:
Since @Ed_Miliband was announced as our new Leader at 5pm yesterday 726 people have joined Labour. One new member every 1 min 48 secs #Lab10
The voting system
Some are questioning how fair the voting system is, as the union votes from the electoral college sealed Ed's win in the 5th round. But union members are not mindless automatons who blindly follow their leadership. If you look at the results many union members did not give Ed first preference.
If the voting system is to be reviewed, it will be important to also look at the 1/3 of the electorate college which is given to MPs and MEPs. Surely this is less democratic with a few hundred voters having a significant say on the outcome of the election.
