More Of This Please, Ed!

This Post is Bought to you by Frank Lefty, of The Urbanite

This week is a big week for Ed Miliband.  On this day last year he had just been elected as the new leader of the Labour party after defeating his older brother in what was a closely fought contest.  In his victory speech he promised a new vision from the party, one that broke with the toxic environment that plagued Gordon Brown's government in it's last few months.  His aim was to offer a credible alternative to the coalition government and convince the British public that Labour was once again fit for office.

It is safe to say that, one year on, many people have yet to be convinced by Ed's approach.  A recent poll conducted by the Mail on Sunday saw a majority of voters stating their preference for David, rather than Ed, Miliband as Labour leader, with 39% of Labour voters even stating that they wanted the former Foreign Secretary to take over from his brother.

Many people we talk to do not know what the younger Miliband represents as leader of the party, what his vision for Labour is and how he plans to solve Britain's economic problems.

There are many reasons for this.

Ed's Clause I Moment

The Guardian is today reporting that Ed Miliband is ready to make his mark on the Labour party by rewriting Clause I of the party's constitution.  In drafts of the proposed changes seen by the paper there is a focus on the principles of community organising in an attempt to get members of the public who may support Labour, as well as disillusioned members who feel disconnected to the party, more involved with the Labour movement.

This is a great idea for the right moment.  Miliband has recently begun to impress a lot of people who had slight reservations this time last year when he was elected as leader of the Labour party.  His performances at PMQ's have improved and his conduct during the phone hacking scandal and the recent riots were both politically astute and measured.

Now with a chance to stamp his authority on the party and lead the fight against the coalition he is finally ready to show us his vision for the party in the next three years.  Some may say that he has taken his time, but it does seem that the party needed time to listen to the concerns of the public and then put forward a strategy for change.  Putting community organising at the heart of this vision is a good start and Miliband can do no worse than look across the Atlantic and gain inspiration at the way community organising still works today for Obama.

It will be interesting to see the role trade unions, faith groups and local youth organisations play in Miliband's new vision for the Labour party.  He will have to balance a tight line of not being seen too close to the trade unions, at a time when strikes next year could further cripple our public services, whilst also helping the trade unions in their fight against the coalition's austerity measures.  This will be hard.

It will also be hard, but also a good opportunity, to be seen to be doing something in response to the recent riots by trying to get younger people in areas affected by the cuts more politically active.  Who knows, such a move could bring in a new generation of Labour supporters and members who otherwise would never have involved themselves in the politics affecting their communities.

There still are a lot of questions to be answered, but September is shaping up to be an important month for the party.  It looks like a trip to the football mecca that is Liverpool isn't the only reason The Urbanite will be looking forward to the party conference this year.  It looks like we are also going to be enjoying the making of Ed Miliband's Labour.

Miliband’s Moment

This post is brought to you by Frank Lefty, of The Urbanite

“This is not about poverty, this is about culture”

And with those words, Dave ‘hug a hoodie’ Cameron set the tone for the debate in the House of Commons on Thursday on what went from being called the ‘London Riots’ to the ‘UK Unrest’ in the media.  To be fair to Dave he did manage to perfectly capture the public mood when he eventually returned from holiday in sunny Italy, even if it seemed too late for many of his detractors on both the left and the right.  I admit, his speech on Tuesday in which he promised to track down and find every rioter sounded George Bush-esque.  But by that time things looked so severe, with the country on the brink of what seemed like internal civil war, that part of my left wing self prayed for a George Bush type Prime Minister, complete with cowboy hat and pistols drawn, to fly down from the skies and take out the rioters one by one. 

All in all, however, it appears that Dave did well.  He managed to sound both tough and understanding at the same time, although his refusal to admit that police cuts are having an effect on the morale and capability of the police is akin to Arsene Wenger claiming that Arsenal do not need to spend money.  They do. And the police need extra resources to ensure that something like this does not happen again. 

But what about my main man Ed Miliband?  Well after coming out with the predictable soundbites that the riots were ‘shocking’ and ‘unacceptable’ (no shit!) Miliband seemed to find his feet during the week and unlike Cameron actually attempted to find a cause for the riots. As Miliband correctly stated, to seek to explain the riots is not to seek to excuse them.  And unlike his Labour counterparts Harriet Harman and Ken Livingstone, he wisely avoided blaming cuts to EMA or youth clubs for the disturbances and correctly sought to identify other underlying long-term issues such as social inequality and a lack of ethics in our society.  He also correctly identified that this lack of ethics is not just rampant amongst the ‘underclass’ section of society that most people blamed for the riots, but also amongst the upper echolons of society; from irresponsible bankers to expense fiddling politicians.