by Ian Lucas
I enjoy how much Ed Miliband is underestimated. I am not at all surprised that Ed has taken a bold and visionary step in seeking to redefine the historic link between Labour and trade unions. After all, he has taken similar steps before.
First, Ed talked about the “squeezed middle”. Opponents chortled at first. But when people understood what the phrase meant, they agreed that there are indeed more and more people in Britain who are being asked to work harder, for longer hours, and are being put under severe financial pressure. They are the ones paying the price for the cost of the world crash, whilst, for the bankers, it seems to be business as usual.
Second, Ed spoke in his Liverpool Conference Speech in 2011 about “responsible capitalism”. Whilst some of the initial reaction from the media was negative, when the dust settled, most recognised that Ed had a point. Our economic system is not working for the majority of people, with many paying the high cost of subsidising profits for, amongst others, international utility companies.
Next, he spoke out for the innocent, vulnerable victims of appalling media intrusion by one of the most powerful businesses in the UK, News International. I know that many will have told him not to take on Rupert Murdoch. After all, he was acting against the received political wisdom of the last thirty years. This timorous approach had debased not just our politics, but our national life. But when it needed to be said that things had to change, Ed said it.
Now, Ed has said that he wants machine politics to end – the politics that demeans us all. And Ed has gone further. He also wants MPs to concentrate on doing the job we are paid to do. At a time when the Government is freezing public sector pay and private sector pay is flat, how can any MP think it is right to draw an MP’s salary from the public purse and have an income of up to £400,000 too?
Contrast these steps with the approach of David Cameron, the man who held private dinners for Tory political donors in Downing street, promised to come clean on it, and, a year later, is yet to publish the report he promised to publish.
