Ed Miliband tells fellow Labour NEC member Ken Livingstone not to worry…
“Ed Miliband phoned me yesterday evening, and he briefed me on what he’s doing – he has not the slightest intention of breaking the trade union link. I had a text from his office saying that the news Ed will end the union link is total nonsense and emphatically not his view or our line.”
Ed Miliband is giving a speech today explaining how Labour can be tough on spending. He praised by way of example Atlee’s 1945 Labour government’s attitude to spending, “This is a government that banned the import of sardines because they were worried about the balance of payments. It shows a government can be remembered in difficult times for doing great things.”
Will Ed be apologising in PMQs? This is one judge-led public inquiry he won’t be calling for…
UPDATE: Yvette Cooper has now called for an inquiry.
Dan Hodges opines…
“Ed Miliband’s decision to fight the Tories on welfare is the biggest tactical blunder since General Custer said “I hear the Little Big Horn’s looking good this time of year”.”
If you’re at your wits’ end come eight o’clock this evening then why not tune into Radio 4 to hear Ed Miliband in conversation with the Indy’s Steve Richards. Apparently not joking in his attempt to relaunch himself as a conviction politician, Ed tells Richards that he’s just like Maggie:
“She was a conviction politician and conviction really matters. In the 1970s, it was a similar moment, in the sense that an old order was crumbling and it wasn’t 100 per cent clear what was going to replace it. The challenge of the future is who can rise to the scale of challenge that the country faces and who can create a project for how this country’s going to be run that is genuinely going to make our economy work, not just for a few people but much more widely.”
A frightening thought…
Watch wee Dougie squirm. Four times Andrew Neil asks him whether awkward Ed is a millionaire, four times the shadow foreign secretary refuses to answer. Why could that be?
Perhaps it’s something to do with the fact that the north London townhouse house Ed and Justine bought for £1.6 million three years ago is now worth a cool £2.3 million. What’s more, Ed’s wife switched their £400,000 mortgage from Clydesdale bank to Barclays in September. That whole calling for Bob Diamond’s head thing must have slipped his mind.
The questions aren’t going away. Guido will keep asking until Millionaire Miliband tells us how much he’s worth…
