Ed should go out on a Friday and Saturday night along the Palatine Road Manchester and see the streets awash with youngsters spilling out of the clubs fast food joints pubs or just hanging around. There are 2 universities in Manchester to their credit, so Manchester is a young and vibrant city. Its also a noisy dirty and risque town, particularly in the late hours.
It would be great if more youngsters and students put their energies into politics and changing society for the better.

T Man, thank you for the clarification - and so charmingly expressed! May I point out that There is certainly an atmosphere of relieved sincerity at this conference, with less naked ambition and jostling for ministerial internships and points on CVs. is a straight quote from Laurie's piece; it's her perception I'm responding to, not my own.

Can someone explain the difference between----Blair saying--"A new dawn has broken" in 1997 and Milliband saying--"We are the new generation" as of now?

Labour are only Social Democrats from the tainted personal perspective of a certain demographic.
A more accurate description of Labour, for the millions priced out of housing, would be, [Economic] Facists.

[The Labour Party are directly responsible for inflating the biggest asset bubble in History. The Housing Market.
Labour then transferred that debt onto everyone else in society.
So our money is being stolen, through QE, Low IR, increased taxes, mortgate relief, etc, to pay for this toxic mortgage debt, to bail out the banks. In effect, our money is being de-valued and stolen to pay for other peoples houses.
Whilst keeping houses massively overinflated, and ensuring millions can never afford their own small house.]

Obviously not a 'socialist' or 'democratic' act.

The Labour party has implemented policies which support one section of a society, to the extreme detriment of another section of that society [via blatant theft and cronyism]

The most notable characteristic of a FACIST ideology is the separation and persecution or denial of equality to a specific segment of the population.

The preferred class lives in relative comfort, while the oppressed class lives in a Facist state.

Labour are [justifiably] hated like no other government whom has held power amongst certain segments of society.

And Labour have yet to even comment on those issues......

Was a hilarious night, particularly ben bradshaw's near collapse from laughter after his dodgilly recieved speech. Although i hear the bar staff got lots of abuse from our self appointed new ceasars

Facing the disappointment of their first defeat from office since 1979 , there was right wing media speculation as to whether the |Labour party will fall into the fracas of the squabbling which ensued the defeat of 1979 . There is on e major difference between the Labour party of 1979 and the one of 2010 .
The main difference is that the conservative party did not need the help of the party which finished third to form a Government in 1979 , and many of the old guard on the Labour party who controlled the party are also gone .
Now with regards to those who voted for the Conservative party in 1979 , did not experience 13 years of Labour , therefore there are a lot of the younger generation who actually believe that things were really great under the Conservative administration .
Ed Miliband's main dilemma is to to ensure that he has the support of small businesses in the country as well as support from the increasing number of low paid workers in Great Britain, and build for a future for the youth of this nation , which the coalition is failing , and will fail to do , as their policies are akin to the old Thatcherite policies which lead to decline in the primary sector, and sell off , of the family silverware, and creating a division between north and South . The "mess " which the coalition blames on Labour , was inherited from the previous Tory administration under John major ,and Labour did not spend enough to rectify many of the problems that it had inherited from the Tories .
Ed Miliband's job will be made slightly easier by the Lib-Dem's departure towards the wonderful pastures of free enterprise and eventual merger with the Conservative party .

During the early 1980's . apart from the labour party trying to tear itself apart due to old guard dogma , and unclear about exactly how to deal with a Tory media , who were relishing every second , Labour were crying out for new blood , which was very difficult to find , initially . Once the party got it's head around the fact that the younger generation where the party's future , they slowly began to carry out the necessary reforms needed to make the party electable once more . It is " Red Ed's" task to find out what that winning formula is , and make sure it is a long term plan , unlike the Lib-Dem's programme .

when eric heffer was dying of cancer,he told neil kinnock i wish it was you that was dieing you bastard,i thought was a nasty cruel thing to say bearing in mind they was both in old labour in the 80s, but what heffer was upset about was kinnock turned the old socalist labour party into new labour with the purge of the far left and the militant old labourites like derek hatton and co,now can any left winger or socalist in here call the lighter shade of blue ed millibands party labour again,i dont think so,its time for a new name change for your party and its up to you new generation of left wingers and socalists to decide the name.

So now were back into a youth 'New Generation'culture, I guess 'oldies' not wanted. But stop, the trouble is oldies have votes and there are more of them every year. What's more we hate punk music, and remember the last Labour government had the worst housing record since WW1. And then oversaw an increase of 3 million in the UK population.
Sorry but Ed is not the boy for me!

This blog's lesser failing is that it's full of nonsense, and pretentious nonsense at that - "the true horror of the Thatcher years", oh please. The bigger problem is that it's so badly written. Laurie, you can't write. Sorry, but you can't. This is sixth form stuff.

You have an obsession with generations. It is a distraction. The issues haven't changed since I was your age (don't ask). All that matters is that we take the right steps - together.

Laurie I was once a young man full of ideas and idealism as were some of the people you say "saddled us with debt, tanked the economy and took us into Iraq" You'd have to have lived through the Thatcher years to fully understand just how desperate we were to see the back of the Tories.You have to understand how the party had to have appeared to have changed in the face of a media onslaught that had found it's way into the nations psyche.Yes we bent and conformed and did it their way as principles don't put a loaf of bread on the table.Good luck with the fresh start but go easy on some of those old fellas who done what they thought had to be done AT THE TIME.

http://www.billybragg.co.uk/blog/?p=54

and always remember Laurie you will need a double edged sword to fight the good fight.On one side the words must appeal to the electorate should be inscribed, no matter how ignorant,greedy and selfish they are.Unless of course your planning a revolution.

"...most of us are far too young to remember the true horror of the Thatcher years..."

Or the mess that the 1979 Labour government left the country in it would appear.

"With the politicians who saddled us with debt, tanked the economy and took us into Iraq shuffling off into the twilight, one thing's certain: it's our turn now."

So why did many of you appear to support the party at the time? Why did nobody say "This is wrong"?

And what politicians? Ed Balls? Still there. David Miliband? Still there. Ed Miliband? Still there.

I'm all for parties growing and developing but whilst you have the likes of Ed Balls denying everything you will, imo, be unelectable.

The problem with the NuLab aberration was not that it was a Labour administration so much as it was a continuation of the 30 years of Thatcherite neo-conservatism.

Were we saying it was wrong ? Damn right we were, I distinctly remember voting Labour in '97 and getting a conservative govt and was pretty angry about it. However, the top down authoritarianism froze out the possibility of dissenting views troubling the ruling clique's sleep. That's why so many left the party, what was the point of being involved in the continuation of economic policies I despised.

Sure there's a whiff of the old faces around, but hopefully a new task. I'm not celebrating yet, but I'm more hopeful than I've been in years.

never mind ed and david miliband,bbc 1,9pm tomorrow, the beautiful,vivacious ann widdicombe xxx makes her first appearence on strictly come dancing.

HelenGB pretty well sums up my feelings on the matter, although I'm not entirely unsympathetic to Jon's argument either. Tentatively optimistic about the new leadership, certainly (as HelenGB says) "more hopeful than I've been in years", but also (like Jon) still more than a little cynical.

Sarah takes issue with the quality of Laurie's prose and yet offers us the dubious passage: "...my honest view seems reasonable to put to a blogger who...". Smoother, Sarah, to say: "Surely it's reasonable to put my honest view to a blogger who...".