{"id":2140,"date":"2010-09-17T14:03:07","date_gmt":"2010-09-17T12:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=2140"},"modified":"2010-09-17T14:03:07","modified_gmt":"2010-09-17T12:03:07","slug":"2140","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=2140","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour and the Millibands<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today the Times <\/em>comes out in favour of David and against Ed. It\u00a0prefers David’s more moderate interpretation of Centre Left and reckons he will win elections more easily. He also has better judgement internationally and would be tougher on Iran. I profoundly disagree. The story of the foreign office under his leadership is one of stagnation and failure. He is too ready to accept the Blair theory of just war. There have been times in history when we have been well served by war mongers. There have been times when we have not. The Blair years prove the point.<\/p>\n

Ed, by contrast, sees the\u00a0 role of Labour as the party of the Left and sees an essential role in a balanced democracy of left wing ideology as a challenge to vested interests and public apathy. He tells us the vulnerable need a champion and he is right. An opposition led by Ed would be a force to be reckoned with and a cohesive focus for those in need.<\/p>\n

It is true that Labour under Ed would not easily win a general election, when the electorate\u00a0is in little mood for radical\u00a0change. David might. But his brand of Social Democracy produces government of very poor quality as we know only too well, so we do not want that kind of victory. Ed will win when the country is ready. When it is he will offer a government not of spin and fake reforms, but a more radical programme for social advancement, which like Attlee’s in 1945, will endure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Labour and the Millibands Today the Times comes out in favour of David and against Ed. It\u00a0prefers David’s more moderate interpretation of Centre Left and reckons he will win elections more easily. He also has better judgement internationally and would be tougher on Iran. I profoundly disagree. The story of the foreign office under his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malcolm-blair-robinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2140"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2143,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions\/2143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}