I am surprised to find that I want to share this series of tweets:
Most will say 'Ed Miliband? He's still around?'
Or 'What the heck is the relevance of what he has to say?'
Well, I offer three thoughts. First, note tweet 7: the old economic order is dead.
Second, note tweet 8: we cannot write off people who voted for Trump.
And tweet 9: we must rebuild with deep thinking.
Now this could, of course, all be show. That's possible. And it could, of course, be dismissed because of who wrote it. But I am not so cynical. This shows someone who is willing to change his mind, and say so. He is admitting he got things wrong. He is saying there can be no going back. He is expecting a different form of politics or there are no answers.
Before you get excited realise that some may have known this for a lot longer than Ed Miliband may have done, but there is no point presenting arguments for change unless they deliver change. So when people accept the argument that change is needed don't dismiss them straight away when they are actually delivering evidence that your argument is winning.
I don't know where Ed Miliband's thinking is going - although he clearly hints favour for the work of the Resolution Foundation in tweets that followed - but I still think this is good news. And I would call for open minds right now. Change cannot happen without them.
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In the context of Miliband’s tweats and your blog, Richard, I suggest reading this from Naomi Klien if people haven’t already done so. Note she specifically mentions a new green deal.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/rise-of-the-davos-class-sealed-americas-fate
Thank you
Blogged!
Very, very interesting. I ‘ve always thought that this Miliband is a much better policy person than a leader. The only rider is if his responses are too redolent of what has gone before just repackaged. And you are right about #7 – I said the same myself yesterday (but hey – big deal).
Capitalism works best when it works for everyone – that is via a fair distribution of the income from labour which leads to economic health. The road we are on now is self defeating for everyone. It is the closed minds of those who are driving us down this road that need to be dealt with.
And Miliband is right in that those who voted for Trump (and those here who voted here for BREXIT) should not be demonised. Their concerns should be addressed as increasingly any of us could end up in their situation (priced out of work, no work or poorly paid).
Ed demonstrated that he wasn’t a leader people wanted to vote for but that of itself can’t invalidate his right or wish to write these tweets. At first glance, the tweets suggest to me that he’s the first politician to even have a stab at publicly analysing the state of politics and overtly acknowledging his change of heart. Whether or not he’s got it absolutely right isn’t the point; trying to kick off a discussion of better alternatives is. Well done, Ed.
That was my thought
He’ll never lead a party again – but if he can think it would be good if he would
Also praise for Ed Miliband’s on his World of One interview from the Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow
“one of the most interesting interventions I’ve heard from any British politician since Trump’s election”
I think he has always been a thinking politician, it is just that some of his ideas like predistribution were too difficult for most people to get.
He never quite recovered from that bacon butty picture….which just goes to show: you’ll get nowhere without sorting out the psychos’ that own the press.
Still…Ruperts quite rich…and Branson has just got a billion of NHS contracts…and a large slice of social work contracts.
I quite liked Ed…intelligent, nicely spoken…but he just did not have the looks of a successful leader…too easy to lampoon.
Now Corbyn…well; he looks a lot like Alec Guinness/Obi-Wan-Kenobi.
May the force be with him!
As if on cue:
http://newsthump.com/2016/11/09/obi-wan-kenobi-reports-great-disturbance-in-the-force/