Shibley Rahman is a devout Labour Party member, without any particularly strong views on who should become leader.
This is me talking now! I feel the field is very strong, and the only thing I want is for the Coalition to be voted out of office, only if they do a bad job. If they do a good job, however, that's entirely different.
But back to Labour - it's our time now!
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Friday, 3 September 2010
Who do you think is currently winning?
I am now supporting Ed Miliband as number 1 after weeks of choosing a new no. 1 every day.
I am going to see here in Hampstead tomorrow night. I am looking forward to it enormously!
Who did you vote for / who will vote for, any why?
His brother! David is the candidate the public would vote for (47%) David is the most feared by the Tories David has the support of MPs, his peers who know the candidates David has set up a true, radical, action group of grassroots supporters.
Still, Ed will soothe us, his policies will not appeal to the wider electorate, but if he wins I will support him.
Be very clear though. We WON'T win an election under Ed. PLEASE Labour friends, wake up and TRY to choose for the country, not for yourselves.
I respect Sue's view but lack her certitude. I have been torn between David & Ed. The truth is that the public will only make their true judgement after we, the Labour Movement membership, have voted. The public have no idea who Ed Milliband is. I have met both brothers on a number of occasions over the years and have the highest regard for them both. I think on balance Ed will distance us from the poor foreign policy decisions that came after our Ethical Policy was dropped losing us a first class foreign secretary by the way RIP and many people their lives. I dont think the public will find Ed massively left wing (no serious contender is in that bracket anyway). He will bring some sense of integrity back into a soiled game that has confirmed public apathy and given the lazy an excuse while alarming the principled majority. Either brother winning will take us forward but we do need to ditch some of our past approaches, but, if we want to be elected, there must be the balance Tony Blair acheived in his early years as leader.
I'm in something of a dilemma: the heart says Ed but the head says David. I was previously going to vote Ed but now I am wavering. I think David is more likely to appeal to undecided/floating voters and I am now minded to give him my vote.
I think we should avoid the mistakes the Tory party made after their defeats in 1997 and 2001 when instead of voting for Ken Clarke (who would have caused us problems as Tory leader) they went for ideological purity in voting for William Hague and IDS. Whilst I would dearly love a genuine left of centre leader who voted against the Iraq war etc I think we should consider what we need to do to get re-elected and to be pragmatic.
My view remains that this government will be a one term government because of the unpopular decisions it needs to take. But I do not think that it will happen automatically and we need to work to offer ourselves as a credible alternative.
We need to treat the electorate with respect and appreciate that we had we won the election in May we would have been required to spell out where the spending cuts would have been. So we need to have a strategy in place rather than blindly oppose every cut. We should also absolutely savage the back door privatisation of the NHS that the coalition is bringing in. Especially as the people that will benefit the most are Tory donors (and no doubt are on the board of the tax payers alliance and their firms probably actively engage in tax avoidance while the vulnerable have to pick up the tab via the latest HMRC notice today about people paying the incorrect level of tax).
I also think we should be more careful about attacking the Cameron Big Society idea. Given that some of the founding groups of the Labour movement came from cooperatives, friendly and mutual societies which looked after others within their community we should consider that some of this does provide value. The key is that it needs to be properly funded which I don't believe a Tory/Lib Dem government would do.
Given that when we in power we were funding a lot of local community projects we should try to build on this and point out the the very groups the coalition wants to run projects at a local level are being denied funding. I think we should actively engage on this and consider mutualisation and cooperatives as solutions to local needs with appropriate state backing. We need to engage with councillors we have at the ground level as they are likely to know the needs of their local community. I think attacking the whole idea of the Big Society is counter-productive and given our history here it is something we can turn to our advantage.
I am keen to know what other people think on this and I am open to persuasion and I am keen to debate on this.
I have met both Milibands and David to me looked more primeministerial. Also David has the ability to reach out to the floating voters and the middle class voters that New Labour lost in this election.
I don't think Ed will be bad but I am not fully convinced he will be able to mobilise supporters of all backgrounds; when I met him he was talking/ focussing alot about working class suppporters and didn't mention others.
In a day and age where class is becomming less important to indivisuals, playing the class card might not be the best idea. However this is only my opinion.
His brother!
ReplyDeleteDavid is the candidate the public would vote for (47%)
David is the most feared by the Tories
David has the support of MPs, his peers who know the candidates
David has set up a true, radical, action group of grassroots supporters.
Still, Ed will soothe us, his policies will not appeal to the wider electorate, but if he wins I will support him.
Be very clear though. We WON'T win an election under Ed. PLEASE Labour friends, wake up and TRY to choose for the country, not for yourselves.
I respect Sue's view but lack her certitude. I have been torn between David & Ed. The truth is that the public will only make their true judgement after we, the Labour Movement membership, have voted. The public have no idea who Ed Milliband is. I have met both brothers on a number of occasions over the years and have the highest regard for them both. I think on balance Ed will distance us from the poor foreign policy decisions that came after our Ethical Policy was dropped losing us a first class foreign secretary by the way RIP and many people their lives. I dont think the public will find Ed massively left wing (no serious contender is in that bracket anyway). He will bring some sense of integrity back into a soiled game that has confirmed public apathy and given the lazy an excuse while alarming the principled majority.
ReplyDeleteEither brother winning will take us forward but we do need to ditch some of our past approaches, but, if we want to be elected, there must be the balance Tony Blair acheived in his early years as leader.
David Miliband is more experienced and more able to win the next Election. Vote David.
ReplyDeletePlease tell at least ten people to vote David.
Vote the person who more likely able to win next election.
Ed is younger, less experience, David is best choice
Deborah Chong
deborahchong@live.co.uk
www.yahwehtheway.org
I'm in something of a dilemma: the heart says Ed but the head says David. I was previously going to vote Ed but now I am wavering. I think David is more likely to appeal to undecided/floating voters and I am now minded to give him my vote.
ReplyDeleteI think we should avoid the mistakes the Tory party made after their defeats in 1997 and 2001 when instead of voting for Ken Clarke (who would have caused us problems as Tory leader) they went for ideological purity in voting for William Hague and IDS. Whilst I would dearly love a genuine left of centre leader who voted against the Iraq war etc I think we should consider what we need to do to get re-elected and to be pragmatic.
My view remains that this government will be a one term government because of the unpopular decisions it needs to take. But I do not think that it will happen automatically and we need to work to offer ourselves as a credible alternative.
We need to treat the electorate with respect and appreciate that we had we won the election in May we would have been required to spell out where the spending cuts would have been. So we need to have a strategy in place rather than blindly oppose every cut. We should also absolutely savage the back door privatisation of the NHS that the coalition is bringing in. Especially as the people that will benefit the most are Tory donors (and no doubt are on the board of the tax payers alliance and their firms probably actively engage in tax avoidance while the vulnerable have to pick up the tab via the latest HMRC notice today about people paying the incorrect level of tax).
I also think we should be more careful about attacking the Cameron Big Society idea. Given that some of the founding groups of the Labour movement came from cooperatives, friendly and mutual societies which looked after others within their community we should consider that some of this does provide value. The key is that it needs to be properly funded which I don't believe a Tory/Lib Dem government would do.
Given that when we in power we were funding a lot of local community projects we should try to build on this and point out the the very groups the coalition wants to run projects at a local level are being denied funding. I think we should actively engage on this and consider mutualisation and cooperatives as solutions to local needs with appropriate state backing. We need to engage with councillors we have at the ground level as they are likely to know the needs of their local community. I think attacking the whole idea of the Big Society is counter-productive and given our history here it is something we can turn to our advantage.
I am keen to know what other people think on this and I am open to persuasion and I am keen to debate on this.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI voted David as my first choice.
ReplyDeleteI have met both Milibands and David to me looked more primeministerial. Also David has the ability to reach out to the floating voters and the middle class voters that New Labour lost in this election.
I don't think Ed will be bad but I am not fully convinced he will be able to mobilise supporters of all backgrounds; when I met him he was talking/ focussing alot about working class suppporters and didn't mention others.
In a day and age where class is becomming less important to indivisuals, playing the class card might not be the best idea. However this is only my opinion.
Sean, using Chantal's Google handle:
ReplyDeleteDiane Abbott, because yes I would.
But primarily because she is intelligent and honest.