The ‘rumours of my death’ quotation, attributed originally to Samuel Langhorne Clemens, has a long history.
Ed Miliband’s political journey, via Haverstock Hill Comprehensive School and Oxford University, by comparison has been much shorter. He does not appear to have gone via many checkouts along the way, though his nearest checkout would have been at Morrisons at Chalk Farm Road had it existed then.
But socialism did exist then. Miliband is clearly intent on fixing markets, but socialism, arguably, would prefer to get rid of them. Such an analysis will inevitably take you through hybrid economies, or the feasibility of the implementation of socialism in various countries. But the refrain that Ed Miliband is not a ‘socialist’ does not particularly appear to worry him.
Whatever Miliband’s formulation on the structure and function of the National Health Service, it’s more likely to be interesting than him eating a chip butty, or whether he can remember a local leader’s name from a dimly lit studio in London.
Miliband’s view on the running of the health and social care system may not often openly discuss payment by results or root cause analyses in patient safety, but nor does Mr Farage’s. Ultimately, Miliband needs to produce a vision on the NHS is more coherent than Farage’s, Clegg’s, or Cameron’s.
And this job is not particularly difficult. Clegg will be interested in the goals of competition lawyers, and Cameron with that of private providers. Farage is yet to unleash his crack squad focus group on health, so we have no idea what his offering will be.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Ed Miliband is totally buggered politically. But the pained expressions of John Mann and Graham Stringer as sore losers undermine their credibility as critical friends.
They are readily available for vacuous commentary from a supine BBC, which hailed the finding of zero councils for UKIP as an ‘earthquake’.
And Labour did perform on decent objective measures, such as the overall number of seats and the popular share of the vote. One of the myriad of untold stories is the complete implosion of the popular support of the Conservative Party. That Party know they’re stuck with David Cameron, and no Tory wants to break ranks ahead of Newark (a seat likely to be won by the Tories.)
Patrick O’Flynn, chief communications officer for UKIP, may be congratulated on producing Nigel Mirage, a figment of a new Jerusalem in politics which does not exist.
The UKIP message is claimed to be ‘selling on the doorstep’, but it does not seem to be selling particularly well on the doorsteps on metropolitan centres of England such as Newcastle, Manchester, London, Birmingham or Bristol.
To say it is an earthquake is a disingenious as selling cod roe as caviar. Sure, Ed Miliband needs to be more convincing about the ‘cost of living’, but most people can smell a rat when it is Andrew Neil, recently returned from Dubai, who complains that the ‘cost of living’ message is not getting through. Or Patrick O’Flynn, former Chief Political Editor for the Daily Express, is responsible for selling the message that the modern political class continues with the same Oxbridge types on a revolving door basis.
The BBC may have captured the safe seat of Nick Robinson (no innuendo intended), but rumours of Ed Miliband’s demise or death have certainly been greatly exaggerated. While the ‘35% strategy’ clearly promotes a strategy of the bland leading the bland, it has succeeded in completely annihilating the Liberal Democrats as a credible force in politics.
Ed Miliband must up his game, and have a very clear vision on the NHS which he can articulate without looking strained. While the ‘cost of living crisis’ may be resonating, particularly with some in London, Ed Miliband cannot be seen as a one trick pony, particularly if real wages overtakes the cost of living later this year as predicted.
Whether or not UKIP gets sucked in to fill this vacuum depends on UKIP’s ability to co-form a Government. And for this it needs MPs. The idea of Liberal Democrats repealing their own legislation, propping up a Labour administration with insufficient numbers to form a majority, is simply enough to fill anyone with dread.
But Labour does need some support from the chattering classes, particularly existentialist Green voters in the Guardian.
