Even the BBC could not make head nor tail of his comments, entitling their article;
"Miliband urges Labour to inspire with national mission"
And where exactly is this mission going?
Miliband witters on about social divide, potentially a vote winner with disenfranchised to use, if they voted. However, he seemingly fails to address the enormous role that Labour played in the last 13 years in maintaining and further expanding that social divide.
He coins it the "new inequality". the soundbite I suspect will become as distasteful as "broken Britain" and "alarm clock Britain". Will Miliband next start calling about "Britain's new inequality"?
I would hasten to point out that there is nothing new about inequality. if inequality and social divide due to the rich and the poor was a phenomenon, I'm sure we would have noticed. Alternatively, the Chartist revolution might never have happened. Given that Ed Miliband listed one of his favourite books as the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, I would suggest he needs to go back and read it again.
It should also be observed that he is one of the super rich that he is so quick to criticise, I would suggest he needs to be upfront and honest about this when he is is preaching on social divide that was exacerbated in by his own government when they increased capital gains tax to 28%.
Arguably, Miliband does acknowledge that the Labour government significantly contributed towards the social divide, yet he completely failed to set out anyways challenge this or at any way in which his party would be different than it was just over a year ago.
Speeches go, it had to be the epitome of mediocre, full of platitudinous rhetoric and, as Tim Farran MP stated, ultimately vacuous.
As a result, the great Labour mission is clearly on route to nowhere.
Posts
Really you shouldn't believe what the libdems write in Focus. The IFS analysis showed that over the 13 years of Labour government the tax and benefit changes they implemented were progressive. Income inequality rose, although at a much lower rate than other countries and much much lower than under Thatcher.
ReplyDeleteAnd haven't you got Clegg's memo? He doesn't care about income inequality, poverty plus a pound is no better than poverty minus several hundred.
" when they increased capital gains tax to 28%."
??? You mean when they reduced CGT from 28% to 18%. Didn't help, obviously, but shifting several billion of the tax burden from income tax to VAT is worse.
"As a result, the great Labour mission is clearly on route to nowhere."
LOL, where is exactly is the libdem mission going?
Oh well, so much for the progressive majority.
See, unlike Labour, I don't see Lib Dems chosing vernacular to keep in the press when actually saying nothing.
ReplyDeleteWhy does Labour's slower increase in the social divide matter? Surely what matters is that it continued to increase. This is despite attempting to introduce a mediocracy into every public service by increasing service exponentially but failing to increase quality at all.
As for where the Lib Dem mission is going, they seem to be doing a hell of a lot better than Labour at getting stuff done. Try this for starters.