UK Labour leader Ed Miliband has said his party’s leadership lost touch both with its own members and the public. In a speech to the national policy forum, Mr Miliband proposed reforms aimed at making the party less insular and its decision-making more open.
He said the Labour Party “can only win if we change” and that power would not “come automatically”.
Mr Miliband also defended plans to scrap elections for the shadow cabinet, despite backbench opposition.
He said: “A party created by working people, for working people, lost touch with them.
“Old Labour forgot about the public. New Labour forgot about the party. And, by the time we left office, we had lost touch with both.”
And he cited the decision under former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to abolish the 10p starting rate of income tax, which saw millions of low earners lose out.
“At times the leadership seemed to believe that their role is to protect the public from the party.
“It never really believed that the party could provide that vital connection to the British people, and we didn’t build a genuine movement.
“You were telling us about immigration, about housing, about the 10p tax rate, but the leadership did not listen enough.
He added: “Let me be clear what my ambition is – for Labour to be a cause not just a party, a mission not just a programme, a movement not just a government. Then, together, we can build the country we believe in.”
- BBC News
8 Comments
Very funny strip
Thanks
Well, actually I rather hope Ed can be as popular as BO is now…if not he should give up while he’s ahead!
It seems that Sacha Baron-Cohen is getting around rather a lot on this blog of late. Mind you, that was a very good joke.
C’mon DEM what about turning your mind to this? Maybe “iPope therefore iAm” or “Jesus, are you hearing me?”
Never mind – that last panel is priceless
Nup, not funny. How about turning what is obviously a ‘clever’ mind into lampooning
“Popes|” which, to my odd perspective, is the last bastion of pyramidal “heirarchy”.
How soon they forget…
Didn’t forget at all.
Just that the last one was so goood, I thought this time, with lead-in material like this
That your reply might be, um, praiseworthy