Sunday Politics
Hardly has the man been elected or the news filtered beyond the Westminster political spectrum and the media is full of analysis of whether Ed Milliband is red or pink or this or that. We are in the age of instant politics and very bad politics they are. They are fun to watch if you find it interesting, but they do not produce good governance.
Ed will take time to settle into his new role and to swing his party behind his vision. It will be left of centre, because that is where his heart is. He will explore alternative left leaning policies to provide solutions and will rely less on spin to articulate them. He will make kind noises to the so called middle class, but it is in Labour’s roots and heartland that he will seek the base upon which to build his party’s return to power. He knows that Labour is, as its name implies, the party of the majority working population who keep the wheels of civilised life oiled and turning and the people warm, fed and clothed.
He knows that Labour is both radical and progressive and must, to be relevant, to be the engine of change. He knows that when the public mood is for radical change, if Labour’s agenda matches the national mood, it will be given power. He knows too that when it becomes the Establishment, spinning, arrogant and complacent, it will lose it once more.