“One man who asked a question had no idea who Ed Miliband was and started wandering off before he’d answered it. Two others hadn’t the first idea who he was. I said he was running for prime minister and one of them said: “… of Crawley?” “No – the whole country,” I said. “Jesus”, came the response.”
A review of the Shadow Opposition Leader, Ed Miliband MP, and the response he received when he visited Crawley last week by Channel 4 Political Correspondent, Gary Gibbon. Not quite the lasting impression that Labour might have hoped for.
But then Mr Miliband is in a difficult position – he lacks firm policies on which to entice or even to prompt frank debate with passing shoppers and instead he’s left addressing an assembled pack of loyal supporters who bay at his every quip. He needs to get serious to be taken seriously.
Notably on the day he sidestepped the big three issues that matter most to Crawley folk: financial wellbeing; health services; and welfare reform.
Following his car-crash BBC Radio 4 World at One interview in which Mr Miliband was asked 13 times whether Labour would be borrowing more money to spend on public services and welfare, he was forced to admit that under a Labour Government borrowing would increase. Such a decision would further threaten the stability of the pound, foreign investment opportunities and the record low interest rates which ensure that mortgage bills remain affordable (for every 1 per cent interest rate increase mortgage bills would rise by £1,000 per year).
On health, Mr Miliband has refused to match the Government’s pledge not only to protect health funding but to increase the budget year-on-year. With an estimated annual funding gap worth £29 billion by 2020 due to a rapidly ageing population his policy of ruling out protecting the NHS budget – which have seen the Labour run Welsh Assembly cut the NHS budget there by 8 per cent – could have disaster consequences for the nation’s wellbeing.
As for welfare, his Party’s continued opposition to any welfare reforms highlights thathe is not on the side of the hard working family – how can it be unfair to say that no
family can earn more from benefits than the average working family does? And yet
Labour still oppose the £26,000 welfare cap.
He can preach from soapboxes the length and breadth of the country but until he stops talking about what he opposes and starts outlining a Labour alternative, Mr Miliband cannot be taken seriously.