[Closed] Why do so many people have a problem with Miliband ?

[i]I would still rather have him than the plastic man and his shitehawk army though.[/i]

This + a million

He changed the will of his dead father, very sleazy

Because Angela Merkel is so hot.

Cameron has made the UK irrelevant on the World stage due to his panic over UKIP...

If he keeps his promise(*) and there is a referendum on EU membership, heaven help us if the voters make their decision on the basis of who has the nicest smile!

(*) I know, I know.

Remember how in Yes Minister, the two candidates for prime minister were both so offensive to the supporters of the other one that either of them winning was bound to result in an huge and damaging split in the party, so they settled on a 'compromise candidate' who was tolerable to both factions, but fundementally incompetent and unable to make either a principled stand or a decision, which allowed those who really ran things to carry on doing what they wanted?

Essentially, that's Ed, a compromise candidate with too much of the Jim Hacker about him to ever be pm.

Edit: found it - you can just see Len Mcclusky and Peter Mandelson sitting round the table discussing the new leader of the Labour Party

Why did the renowned socialist and marxist Ralph Milliband have a £3M house?

Because Marx lost? 😉

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Because houses are worth loads more now than 5o years ago???

Because houses are worth loads more now than 5o years ago???

I just want someone who isn't a Politician (yes I know). Someone who cuts through bullshit, doesnt talk in soundbites, cuts corruption, sleaze and spending.

I don't care if the leader can speak on tv (actors can do that FFS), or give speeches (again the same). I just want someone who can lead the country.

As such none are getting my vote. None of the above.

If The Unions really were interested in the working population we would b much better off. Len Mclusky is all about power. Having seen him run a self serving strike in my company a few years ago, the further he is from power the better.

For the last 4 years, Milibands policy has been "I disagree with whatever he says". Now h wheels out whatever policy his focus groups tell him will be popular in a desperate bid for power.

"No pact with the SNP" Really?? Watch this space.

For the record, I can't stand any of the main leaders. Of all of them I prefer Clegg, but he's about to be wiped out.

Someone who cuts through bullshit, doesnt talk in soundbites, cuts corruption, sleaze and spending.

Pickles for PM?

he's a puppet. told what to say and do. unable to think on his feet. avoids hard questions like the plague by just talking about something else (normally a soundbite or scripted rhetoric), even when challenged - and more-so than any other politician. un-engaging and charmless. wet.
he's just incongruous with the position he holds.

really find him irritating.
But its his way he deals with questions on stuff like the leaders debates that bugs me.
asking everyone their name, telling people that he is about to explain the answer,
I just hate that false coaching crap that he has been taught, getting off his chair and wailking up to the audience etc, its so fake an crap.

But basically, his policies seem to be fag packet stuff that get slaughtered. stuff like the mansion tax, the extra nurses in the NHS, and now he is complaining about hospitals facing a debt crisis, they are facing that because of the PPI deals he and his chums saddled us with last time around.
They are so incompetent its just laughable.

I bet he has a limp handshake

I shook George Osborne's hand once when he was first standing for parliament in Tatton. I can't imagine that anyone could have a weaker one. It was like holding the hand of a three year old.

Has a UK politician suffered so much abuse at the hands of the right wing press?

This makes for an interesting read: https://opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/oliver-huitson/press-campaign-so-far -'coup'-gathers-pace/feed (you may need to copy and paste)

I'd also like to read something that has been tracking The Guardian and The Mirror to see what they're been saying - it'd make for an interesting comparison.

No one could seriously imagine him as the CEO or Chairman of a company and yet he could be representing us around the world.

The amount of people spouting off as if they they know for a fact what they are saying is true when it's actually bulls**t they've picked up from the right wing press is amusing.

I wonder how big Labours majority would be if the press was neutral, or at least 50/50?

CMD is a Tory, he looks like a tory he acts like a Tory.

But Ed is a Labour leader, he just looks and acts like a Tory.
I would have more interest in voting Labour if the Labour leaders were representative of the working people they claim to represent. Kinnock, Smith, etc, I just feel Labour have lost their Soul and their policies reflect this.

from the BBC:

The Independent says it was backing a continuation of the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition

He's an incompetent apparatchick who f*d it up last time and wants to do it all over again.

chestrockwell - Member

The amount of people spouting off as if they they know for a fact what they are saying is true when it's actually bulls**t they've picked up from the right wing press is amusing.

This. So much this.

It would still have been a comparatively expensive house when he bought it

Really? I thought some places, like Notting Hill, went from slums to megabucks in a generation?

how exactly did he stab his brother in the back?

Really poor choice of words from me, wrong thing to say.

I wonder how big Labours majority would be if the press was neutral, or at least 50/50?

My question was how big would the Labour majority be if brother David was leader not Ed ?

I despair at everyone who spouts the 'he's not prime minister material', 'not strong enough', 'will look bad on the world stage', 'he's a bit of a geek' line. It's not the bloody school playground where you try to get in with the hard lads. And even if that was a valid argument, how on earth does some prancing eton boy pass those criteria when Miliband doesn't? They're both mirror images of each other. The only difference is that there's concrete evidence now that Cameron isn't a strong leader (his abject performance in Europe being one of many examples) whereas Miliband is still an unknown quantity.

I think Ed has more credibility living in a £2-3m house his father bought than Bob Crow earning £100k a year as a trade unionist and living in subsidised housing

It's not the bloody school playground where you try to get in with the hard lads

it kind of is though. politics is about influence.

uponthedowns - Member

No one could seriously imagine him as the CEO or Chairman of a company

I easily can 😕 Yes a lot of them are Cameron-like teflon-smooth masters of the universe types, especially the most visible ones, but most that I've met have been just normal dudes.

It's sad that he is probably a genuinely principled guy in there somewhere, but I do think you need a degree of gravitas to be PM. It may be more a sign of me getting old that I look at someone like that and imagine him running for student union president. He looks uncomfortable in whatever skin he's being presented in.

The closest equivalent I can think is Hague when he was put up by the tories a while back. I'm sure there was a similar level of hilarity over his awkwardness in sections of the press.

TBH, I'm sure there is as much surprise within the Labour Party at the possibility of forming a government after this election. I suspect that this scenario was not the one envisaged by many of his colleagues as they planned their own careers even further down the line.

Gravitas? Picture this:

[i]Mr Putin, I must warn you that if Russian forces do not begin to withdraw to the Ukranian border by midnight tonight, I will have no option but to order air strikes against strategic targets, no doubt resulting in significant loss of life[/i]

Imagine Cameron doing the same.

"Look, I must warn you that LONG TERM ECONOMIC PLAN if Russian forces do not begin to withdraw to the Ukranian border by midnight tonight, let me be quite clear, I will have no LONG TERM ECONOMIC PLAN option but to order air LONG TERM ECONOMIC PLAN strikes LONG TERM ECONOMIC PLAN against strategic targets, no doubt resulting in significant loss of life (though even though it doesn't cause half the loss of life I promised it will, I'll still claim it did) and it'll be Ed Miliband's fault".

And behind him will be a big picture of Alex Salmond stealing sweeties from a child.

uponthedowns - Member

No one could seriously imagine him as the CEO or Chairman of a company

I easily can Yes a lot of them are Cameron-like teflon-smooth masters of the universe types, especially the most visible ones, but most that I've met have been just normal dudes.

You honestly think he comes across as normal?

I think that he has a massive press campaign against him depicting him as weird, but yes, he seems to be just some guy. Cameron on the other hand still manages to come across as a shitbag despite having a tame press trying to depict him as the greatest man in the world. Again, I know which I prefer.

He definitely stabbed him in the back

Everybody keeps saying this, but there's no evidence for it (that I know of). They both stood for election, one won, the the other didn't.

I don't trust him or like him, yet I don't get the 'he stabbed his own brother in the back' thing either.

I kind of take it for granted that to get to the top of any party you fought a few people along the way, it just so happened that in this case one was his bro. Certainly wouldn't put me off voting for him, it's his policies that do that!

Mr Putin, I must warn you that if Russian forces do not begin to withdraw to the Ukranian border by midnight tonight, I will have no option but to order air strikes against strategic targets, no doubt resulting in significant loss of life

FFS! What is it that you want? A cantakerous alpha male banging his fist on the table and shouting 'come and have a go then!'. Grow up. And like Cameron has any of these qualities? He couldn't even stop some european bureaucrat being elected EU president, as despite all his chest beating, all his euro counterparts simply laughed and ignored him.

Gravitas? Picture this:

Mr Putin, I must warn you that if Russian forces do not begin to withdraw to the Ukranian border by midnight tonight, I will have no option but to order air strikes against strategic targets, no doubt resulting in significant loss of life

If you can name a current leader of a nation who has the gravitas to actually make that threat...aside from Putin himself, the man with his hand up the backside of the North korean leader, and possibly Netanyahoooooo, in other words whose not insane, then you may have a point.

I don't trust him or like him, yet I don't get the 'he stabbed his own brother in the back' thing either.

He won a vote. More than could be said for Cameron at the last election.

The amount of people spouting off as if they they know for a fact what they are saying is true when it's actually bulls**t they've picked up from the right wing press is amusing.

Really? People generally buy the papers that reflect their views. You could say that's democratic, or perhaps we should resort to censorship to stop this sort of thing? Regardless, I never read the press, let alone the right wing press or poisonous daily mail. My only source of news is the BBC which is supposed to be unbiased, yet I still think Milliband is an absolute clown.

He reminds me of one of those obnoxious Apprentice candidates and I wouldn't have the confidence in him to run a market stall, let alone anything more important.

He'd appear to say anything to get into power, even denying that they had any part in the financial crisis in the UK (cause it was a global thing wasn't it). His election campaign smacks of spreading fear with one hand and giving the electorate sweeties with the other. The trouble is is that sweeties, although they taste nice temporarily, are not good for the teeth in the long term and it's not long before the rot sets in.

I've met him. I don't like him or trust him. That is, however, my opinion.

I've not met Cameron or Clegg, but I strongly suspect that I would not like them much either, although I sort of sympathise a little for Clegg. I met Jonathan Djanogly once as well. Didn't like him either.

I'm struggling to think of a current politician I actually like. My wife has met Julian Huppert and says he seems nice enough, but seems older than he really is, sort of 35 going on 55. That's Cambridge though.

He'd appear to say anything to get into power and his election campaign smacks of spreading fear and giving the electorate sweeties in order to try and win short term votes, rather than a joined up policy that's good for the long term future of this country.

You've been reading the Conservative party manifesto haven't you?

He'd appear to say anything to get into power, even denying that they had any part in the financial crisis in the UK (cause it was a global thing wasn't it).

I think the general consensus amongst economists is that they didn't.

/\ /\ /\ Really ! 😯

The consensus is that the Labour government was relying more on the projected incomes of the financial markets than any other government in the world and then spent way more money than was prudent.

Not that any other government wouldnt have done the same thing.

I think the stab in the back thing is about the union block vote, from what I understand in the election process, he agreed to give them some promises on future laws etc in return for their vote.

I could be wrong.

He'd appear to say anything to get into power, even denying that they had any part in the financial crisis in the UK (cause it was a global thing wasn't it). His election campaign smacks of spreading fear with one hand and giving the electorate sweeties with the other. The trouble is is that sweeties, although they taste nice temporarily, are not good for the teeth in the long term and it's not long before the rot sets in.

Can you please explain why the above could not equally apply to Cameron?

A superficial/trivial as it is, I just don't think either Ed has a likable personality, any charisma, gravitas, or air of authority about them.

Milliband does come across as a total twonk, and that does matter, if the general public see him like that, world leaders will too, I just can't take him seriously.

Also:

[img] [/img]

Plus any other Nick Park animation where he resembles two thirds of the characters.

If the other brother had won the Labour leadership battle, I think they'd win this election.

You've been reading the Conservative party manifesto haven't you?

Nope I've just been watching the BBC news. I'm not biased at all - I've voted Labour and Lib Dem in the past and might do again in the future if they improve, it's just the current Labour lot are a real crock of s**t. The Conservatives have plenty of issues too but they are the far more credible alternative this time around.

Feel really sorry for those people who are blinkered and unable to overcome their prejudices about either party (oh I always vote Labour because the Tory's are for the rich and vise versa). Honestly, open your eyes for once and just vote for whoever you think will do the best job for the long term future of the country, whether Labour, Tory, Lib Dem etc.

If the other brother had won the Labour leadership battle, I think they'd win this election.

Agreed, they'd be in with a much better chance.

Agree with above and I voted the same, for parties that seem credible. I predict a change in leadership and urge the Labour Party to rethink their policies. They seemed to have been surprised at the loss of support to the SNP. They need to consider what the rise of a strong regional party like the SNP means to them and their policies. Wales next? Can only mean further labour seat losses.