Monday Moan 18

I’m just a common man …..

So, Ed Miliband is a common man, a man who has shared the life experiences of an ordinary person, who knows what most of the UK population have to face in their everyday lives – he is, therefore, one of us and someone we can trust.

Well yes, to a point.  I’m not sure that those who have described Haverstock school as ‘Labour’s Eton’ have got it right.  It is not and never was one of the best schools in London, arguably not even in Camden.  But it did and does seem to attract a reasonable number of the pink socialists of Hampstead and Primrose Hill, for whom sending their children to a Comprehensive school is a badge of honour, but let’s make sure it’s a good school.

The real difference with Ed, of course, was that he had a famous academic for a father, which must have helped with securing the attention of his teachers.  Ed also managed to move on from the school to both Oxford and Harvard universities – good for him, but hardly typical of your average UK voter.

More to the point, poor old Ed just doesn’t look the part, does he?  I mean, we should not be so superficial as to think that presentation and personality are all that matter, but it is undeniable that to be taken seriously as a potential Prime Minister you have to score well on both counts. 

That’s a shame for Ed.  It’s also a shame for the Labour Party and UK politics generally.  I can’t help thinking that if the names on the ballot paper for leader had not included 2 Milibands then the voters might not have got so confused and elected the wrong man.

 

 

Give us a story – any story will do

The big story on the eve of the Tory Conference was about Jeremy Hunt’s quote that he personally favoured a 12-week limit for abortions – just as he had voted for last time the issue came up in Parliament.  Nothing surprising there and hardly newsworthy really, even though Jeremy is now the Health Secretary.

As with other issues of what we might call belief or conscience, votes in Parliament on abortion are not cast along party political lines – the parties themselves do not have policies, leaving decisions on how to vote to individual MPs.

The Government has no plans to review the current arrangements so it’s a non-story – except for what it tells us about Jeremy Hunt.  Let’s see, he was the man who somehow emerged from the shambles of his handling of the BSkyB takeover fiasco still in his job, despite what almost everybody believed was, on the most charitable of views of his behaviour, thorough incompetence on his part.  

Of course, he was also the man who nearly nearly decapitated an innocent bystander at the start of the Olympics.

It really is a miracle that the man has risen to his current position, isn’t it?  On abortion he is quoted as saying, “my own view is that 12 weeks is the right point for it. It is just my view about that incredibly difficult question ………. I don't think the reason I have that view is for religious reasons.”

Hmm. Should we worry that he appears not to know whether or not he holds his views for religious reasons?  Maybe the truth is that he should have stopped his remarks after uttering the words “I don’t think.”

 

 

Who are these people?

What is it that makes some of our political leaders feel the need to have a group of supporters sitting behind them during their party conference speeches?  All the backdrop people get to see is the back of their leader yet they are supposed to look enthralled, hanging on every word. They must, above all else, stay awake, of course!

Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband took different approaches when selecting their supporters.  Nick’s looked like they were serious party workers, had heard it all before, and were less than inspired by what they heard.  Ed’s, on the other hand, looked like they were waiting to audition for Glee, all bright-eyed and hanging on Mr Leader’s every word.

 

But if they have to have them there, isn’t it rude not to turn round and acknowledge them during their speeches?