[Closed] David Miliband - Committed Labour Politican - NOT!

Milibastard!

I wouldn't lose sleep over it if I were you Spongiform.

Milibastard!

Don't you mean "Milibastards!"

I don't actually object to him having a tantrum over this.
I imagine they had a conversation way back when, and both agreed to serve in each other's shadow cabinets, in the event of either one of them making the ascent to power. The difference being that D.Miliband never actually believed for one second that he would be put in such a scenario!

What I do object to (if reports from multiple media sources are to be believed), is his wife throwing a hissyfit on his behalf.
I think they were expecting an annointment a la Brown.

Interesting that both Blair's favoured appointee (D.Miliband) and Brown's (Balls) both failed to make the cut.

and Brown's (Balls) both failed to make the cut.

Hope they both crash and Hillary Benn takes over and gets the environment on the agenda.

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spongeblob - committed? should be

as a matter of interest, do you intend ever posting anything that isn't a complete waste of bandwidth?

😆

Milibastards!

I don't care really.

Ignore it then Lycra Lout! 😆

you're an idiot, i understand that much, but why do you just keep posting the same inane pish over and over again?

on reflection, don't bother, i've got more interesting stuff to do - look, that paint there isn't dry yet

😆 😆 😆

Hope they both crash and Hillary Benn takes over and gets the environment on the agenda.

The condems will have to be spectacularly bad for someone who puts an environmental agenda first to win an election.

So not totally impossible after all.

The condems will have to be spectacularly bad

No need to employ the future tense there. They already are.

No need to employ the future tense there. They already are.

How so? Oh, and just "being evil torries (sic, in re Kimbers)" isn't a good enough answer!

Well they were spectacularly bad at winning a mandate from the electorate weren't they? Rather poor considering their whole manifesto was essentially "we're not Labour".

Oh, and just "being evil torries" isn't a good enough answer!

Yes they are.

Ummm...I've broken my self-imposed exile from political threads and my old mate flashy's all over me like a rash 🙂

You know you love it, Darcy, you saucy beast you! 😉

muddydwarf - Member
Well they were spectacularly bad at winning a mandate from the electorate weren't they? Rather poor considering their whole manifesto was essentially "we're not Labour".

Spectacularly bad, but better than anyone else....

Note to self: step away from the thread (after getting flashy's number) 😀

Your face or mine, Darcy? 😉

Druidh - considering what/who the opposition were then the Tories did indeed fail rather spectacularly. It 'should' have been a coronation & given a half-decent opposition party it would have been.
The Conservative Party suffered from an attack of attitude & lost ground accordingly.

How long would they last without their Liberal allies i wonder?

Miliband= knob jockey. Funny also predictive txt changes Miliband to militant...

I see it more as a rat deserting the sinking ship.

The Conservatives will be rubbing their hands with glee as Labour look set to return to the wilderness years of the 80's with a rise in union power, strikes and a swing to the left.

Trust Labour to have a system that favours the second place candidate! Speaks volumes does it not. Harriot clapping for her new leader, sickening. Career politicians don't you just hate them. All of them of course just to keep a sense of parity.

we need clear leadership on this thread, maybe from a distant relative of james callaghan. or was it michael foot?

It's ok I'm here! 😀

What's going on?

It's been reported that D has realised that he'll get loads of crap from the media about being the leader's defeated older brother and not be allowed to get on with being a politician. Seems reasonable to me.

At the conference they had a camera trained right on his face for the whole of E's speech to see if he twitched a facial muscle so they could call it a jealous reaction, creating a soap opera out of nothing.

That'd be enough to make me want out to be honest.

Damn these metric politicians...

I find it all rather amusing how much time committed tories are spending on the labour leadership contest. You would think they are running scared so have to resort to scare tactics. Pages and pages in the tory press as well.

Its not a massive swing to the left nor is Milliband the tool of the unions - this is just plain wishful thinking.

Both Millibands are just rather dull clone career politicians.

😆 @ iDave.

That was very good.

Give Ed Miliband a chance. He might be quite good once he clears that nasty head cold which is obviously affecting his nasal passages and power of speech.

Both career politicians, only time will tell what Ed stands for because he hasnt really said anything yet.
Personally I dont think David had much choice, being in cabinet would give the tories and the press a lot to attack labour with if there were any splits in opinion etc.

The Conservatives will be rubbing their hands with glee as Labour look set to return to the wilderness years of the 80's with a rise in union power, strikes and a swing to the left.

You wish.

What I really don't understand is why/how Ed got elected to the post in the first instasnce.

The guy has only been a politician since 2005 and hadn't hasn't had anything like the kind of senior leadership experience that his brother had as Foreign Secretary. He was energy or environment or some other sideline office beforehand, hardly the material of a potential next PM.

And by god does he lack charisma and presence. I mean I'd rather chew cardboard than listen to him.

David on the otherhand was rightly the obvious choice from the perspective of experience and leadership charisma.

Geetee - it could be that Ed is thus uncontaminated by the Blair / Brown era whereas David was very close to Blair?

How much experience had Cameron?

Clever move. He'll now sit on the backbenches and wait for the inevitable crisis, when the Labour Pains realise what a dreadful mistake they've made and initiate another leadership contest. Then, "Hello, Hello - good to be back...".

Aha TJ well spotted. Yes Cameron had only been an elected politician for a similar period before he was elected to lead the Tory party. Not sure how long it was but I've been told 5 years.

I think the key difference is that Cameron, like him or not, has got bags of charisma, presence and gravitas. To some that comes over as being arrogant, cocky and self assured (PSBesque) but the point is that enough people saw it positively enough to vote for him.

I agree with your point about David being 'contaminated' and I think in addition, his (David's) style of leadership might have been a bit too like Blair's to make people comfortable. But obviously enough people didn't have an issue with that because AIUI, he won a clear majority of votes from labour party members and politicians.

This is where I don't quite understand how the union vote actually works. What is the mechanism TJ, that gives them the right to vote in the first place? I ask because if they aren't part of the 'labour party members' group then what are they?

Labour are gonna regret voting the younger brother in I reckon, Cameron and Clegg will eat him alive in the Commons... The fact he has the poshest and most nasal voice of any politician going is only going to hurt him more!

With David in charge, they may have been able to take the battle to the coalition govt but with Ed there, they're gonna be screwed! The loony left will take charge again, with it's hand firmly up Ed's backside controlling every word he says!

What I really don't understand is why/how Ed got elected to the post in the first instasnce.

The Unions have still got a hell of a lot of power, and they bought him basically... Forget the days of people getting off their arse and going to work, here come 3 day working weeks and strikes if there aren't the right kind of teabags in the staff canteen any more again! 😉

This is where I don't quite understand how the union vote actually works. What is the mechanism TJ, that gives them the right to vote in the first place?

MASSIVE donations... If you join a union, you have to pay a fee, typically £10 a month or so... At least 50% of that goes straight into funding the labour party. So when you think how many people out there are part of a Union, and how much money they give each year, you begin to see why the Unions hold so much sway over the labour party, as they are buying them basically! In my last company, out of peer pressure, over 80% of the staff there had joined the Union (UNITE in this case) as they felt they had to to be accepted by their peers. When I questioned a couple of my colleagues, they were open Tory supporters and were praying for Cameron to win the General Election... Yet they give £120 a year to the Union, more than £60 of that goes to directly funding the Labour Party... MADNESS!!! 😕

i agree d. miliband as foreign secretary was too assosciated with those nasty wars in the middle east
i think he genuinely is upset that he didnt get the job, im sure he thinks he did his turn in the dark days under brown and was the public face of the party/government quite often, even bowing out of a leadership bid against gordon

ed was interviewed on newsnight last night, he came across as intelligent, humble and honest (for a politician)
it will be interesting to see how he faces up to castirondave in the house

The Unions have still got a hell of a lot of power

Yes but how come they get to vote in the leadership election? I know that sounds like an obvious question but if the constituents so far cited include: members of the party, elected labour politicians and the unions, then this statement suggests that the unions are different to ther other two categories.

I guess Labour Politicians are also members so perhaps this is simply a misleading statement, i.e. the set of those that get to vote is all labour party members and the sub sets are unions, elected politicians and everyone else.

How many votes does a union get and what determines this?

Both career politicians, only time will tell what Ed stands for because he hasnt really said anything yet.

I think it stands for Edwood. 🙂

both dull both career politicians and politically very similiar. Damned if he did damned if he did not. We all know spongebib and the tory press would have accused him of something if he had stayed or if he had he gone. Find the attack the oppositon view to you whatever happens a bit dull tbh. His decision, he has made it, let's move on. Not really that interesting is it?

Yes but how come they[unions] get to vote in the leadership

MASSIVE donations... If you join a union, you have to pay a fee, typically £10 a month or so... At least 50% of that goes straight into funding the labour party.

this is just utter drivel. The political levy is voluntary and separate from your union subs. You have to opt in IIRC. Its a few pennies not half your subs.

Hysterical nonsense

David Milliband was fatally wounded (in a political sense) by that photo of him holding the banana and grinning.

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It would be brought out to belittle him every time he tried to be serious, so he might as well knock it on the head now.

This is where I don't quite understand how the union vote actually works. What is the mechanism TJ, that gives them the right to vote in the first place? I ask because if they aren't part of the 'labour party members' group then what are they?

There are good guides to how the electoral college is worked out on the net - maybe even linked to above, Has ernie not explained it on one of these threads?

Basically tho the labour party has individual members and various groups that are affiliated to it such as the unions.

How many votes does a union get and what determines this?

Unions do not get a vote. Individual union members vote as do MPs/MEPs and individual party members, however not all votes count equally. It's tripartite college system which values the three groups listed above at 33% each. As there are fewer MPs than members an single MPs vote is worth more than a single party members vote which is in turn worth more than a union members vote. The block voting by unions was reformed by John Smith (I think).

Surely the first politician to step down in order to spend less time with his family.

When is new New Labour obliged to actually come up with some decent policies on which decisions will be made. Wallace's speech the other day didn't really convery anything except "I'm not new Labour, but I'm also not Red Ed." Would've been more interesting if he'd gone for the Red Ed tag rather than the Wallace tag!!

missingfrontallobe - I suggest that there is no great hurry. there is no election imminent and there is a new leader to settle in.

Indeed. I'm beginning to wonder if some of the posters on here have realised that Labour isn't in power at the moment.

If you join a union, you have to pay a fee, typically £10 a month or so... At least 50% of that goes straight into funding the labour party.

PMSL