Harriet Harman should have run for leader. At least she has the balls to say how it is. Ginger he may be, but a rodent he definately is!

Easy prediction isn't it? Gap between rich and poor has widened in every government since the war hasn't it? (Don't know - am asking).

Yep, hitting the nail on the head, Mehdi. I don't understand Ed's tactics at all. We need a brave opposition that stands up for the people about to be smashed by the coalition's policies. And we need to be setting out a bold alternative that explicitly sets out a different vision for this country. If Labour don't do this no one will, and Ed's got to lead that charge.

I have to agree with Chris Baldwin.
I find it strange that the mainstream media always seems to think that the Left has to worry about 'being electable' (in other words: 'not too left wing'.) But they never seem to ask the 'electablitiy' question of the Tories.

I'm a socialist, and proud of it.

Thanks for the link. And also, it's not insanely left wing to question high pay - Richard Lambert of the CBI was very vocal about the issue on Monday. (The quote about high-paid execs seeming like 'aliens' was from Lambert, not from some Dave Spart figure). Jim

"the rich will be richer and the poor will be poorer"

The rich will almost undoubtedly be richer, Mehdi - but I am willing to bet that the poor will not be poorer.

The gap may grow, but you've fallen into your own fallacy - even when the gap grows the poor are still normally becoming richer. The poor will certainly earn more by the end of the Parliament.

Would you like to take a bet on whether the poor will indeed be poorer at the end of the Parliament? Shall we say £100?

Left-wing politics is pretty ugly most of the time, it's the politics of envy and hate.

'David Camerons' looks are 'vomit inducing' and both he and Clegg are balding! Doesn't look good with the camera angle in parliament' DO I NEED TO MAKE A COMMENT...

It is striking that the one cut that he has been most clearly against is that of child benefit for high earners, which is possibly one of the few that can be justified, but which effects the precious 'squeezed 'middle class only.

I sincerely hope that Ed M does not turn out to be another Obama. We are not expecting great things in a short time but we are expecting some kind of campaigning idea to be surfacing now. One suggestion might be Tax Justice, after all there has been endless scrutiny of 'benefit scroungers'. This could include the requiremnt for all to disclose their tax payments then we could see how many of the 'fat cats' were paying anything near what they should be rather than employing their accountants to reduce their tax liabilities. Also 'non dom' status to be phased out. The majority in the UK do not pay higher rate but are having to endure the 'shock therapy' because of the reckless behaviour of the financial sector. Read 'Freefall'by Stiglitz and see that if we do not do something about the neoliberal system the problems of the past 2 years will come back but next time will be even greater.

Clearly no-one in the Condems knows the cultural reference to 'we're all in it together'. In Terry Gilliam's dystopian film 'Brazil' it is the tag line of the regime as voiced by the character played by De Niro about a minute into the trailer here: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4256891161/

Those who know the film and its themes of never-ending war on terror, torture, bureaucracy, advertising, plastic surgery and doublethink will have already smiled at the irony of the condems unthinkingly using this phrase!

RK - a difficult task, getting swss to understand anything not written by Chris Bambery.

Luddite: Any growth at this stage has nothing to do with the coalition.
Their actions will start to be factored in, I would say, 2nd quarter 2011, when you may eat your words.
David Camerons' looks are 'vomit inducing' and both he and Clegg are balding! Doesn't look good with the camera angle in parliament.

Mrs Nobody: Absolutely darling!

here's anotha - rate/NI/tax breaks for companies that allow one day of remote working for all employees. good for the environment, well-being, the community, the family, self-financing through reduced travel costs on state. no-brainer. where's the imagination in our politicians, bought by big business, who also famously lack innovation (silicon valley aside). the world's going to hell in a handcart and we keep ending up with career bureaucrats focussed on themselves. we need new blood, new ideas. red ed or dead 'ead? if you can't come up with your own, just use other people's, anything but stagnant tinkering (ask obama)

Spot on Sue Davies.

We are never going to acheive the equality they have in Scandanavia because the Right will oppose wealth redistribution with all their might, instead we should look at the Japanese system which has a much narrower gap between high and low pay. If the Right are really about the value of paid work they surely can't oppose that.

Please. Come on. The idea that Miliband is particularly "red" is pretty absurd, if one looks at his record. It's strange really that both the brothers are so "conservative" when their father, Ralph Miliband, seemed pretty radical and saw so much so clearly. His book "The State in Capitalist Society" was extremely influential and widely read.

It seems strange to have such a father, such advantages, but instead of building on Ralph's insights and perspectives, moving forward might one say; the two brother's have retreated and accepted the same things Ralph railed against, odd that. Maybe they simply became too comfortable and too english, compared to their father?

At a time when Capitalism is mired in its worst ever, global crisis, when the US and the UK are probably locked into a "permanent" recession, with high uemployment and low growth, for ever, as the economy goes into structural decline; it's funny that Labour is so timid and passive, when it's been handed a "golden opportunity" to go on the offensive in relation to Thatcherite, neo liberal, economic dogma. An ideology that's on the flippin' ropes, and still Labour are afraid to land a punch on a "champ" that's already drugged and groggy!

To show such a lack of confidence and fighting spirit, to actually choose to tie one hand behind one's back is strange though. Only that implies that I don't know the reason why this continually happens, only it's too depressing to go into here.

The Right don't give a damn about the value of paid work, not in practice. That's just "pure" and empty rhetoric.

Put in slightly, or very, crude and archaic language, we are all involved in a form of... "class warfare", sorry for that. That is, different groups in society are all out to grab as much as they can for themselves of the national economic pie, and those that have the strength or power to snatch the biggest slice, do so, and bugger everyone else... more or less.

Now this idea that society is a tremendous struggle between various social groups is hardly new or uncontroversial, yet we do seem to divert our eyes from the world around us, prefering comforting fairytales about democracy and meritocracy, as opposed to raw power.

"FTSE 100 executives received a 55 per cent jump in pay over the past year"

There is no way to answer that. Except with explosives.

Mark - the number of people living below the poverty line, 60% of median income, will increase between now and 2015. I stand by that.

Western World is mad, as Blair and Brown and Clinton found out, and will get even madder with Cleggeron and Georgie Porgie puddin' an' pie and the tea party nonsense Obama is suffering from at the present moment.

This is what Ed is faced with. Red is just a colour/color, by the way, by original definition. Ed just wants to be now-sensible, not now-totally-hysterical, as what is happening with unimaginative amateur senior cabinet ministers at the moment at the sharp end, flagging terribly in pr-dom crap speak and nothing else.

The man should be letting rip

why hasn't he?

I jumped for unexpected joy when using mental arithmetic to calculate that D Miliband only got 49 point something percent, and that Ed had won. I remember hearing Jon Cruddas afterwards say he "did not know what Ed believed in", saying that he seemed slippery, even deceitful, on his politics. I hope that was wrong.

Ed should be the first post-Thatcherite leader of a major party since the election of Blair. Blair, Brown, all the Tories and of course, Clegg come from the same politics (of economics). Neo-liberal, and pro-extreme wealth. It failed, Ed. And I believed you understood that. I hope you not only do but have the courage and foresight to see: that politics has changed. That you and the anti-neoliberal left are on the right side of the new centre. It is yours to seize if only you have the courage to tell the New Labour drones to eff off!

Perhaps because he was in Scotland speaking to the Scottish Labour Conference at the time?

Writeon is right as ever. It is a joke to suggest that Mili E is red. The Mili brothers are products of their background.

It is irrelevant who runs the Labour party when big business calls the tune that all politicians dance to.

It was interesting how during the recent leadership contest so many media pundits harped on about the unfairness of Mili E winning with support from the unions, as if the unions shouldn't be included in the process.

In the days before big business support for Labour the party's main funding came from the unions and in those far off days the Labour Party did actually represent working people to a large degree.

The fact that they cannot muster any real opposition to the heartless cuts of the Coalition government is no surprise when you consider their paymasters are the same as those of the other 2 parties.

It does look very depressing here but if we raise our eyes and look at south America there are plenty of examples of the masses standing up on their hind legs and demanding and getting change.

and?

Ehtchee: It's early days yet and this coalition are making so many mistakes due to their maccho insistance' that we 'get on with the job now chaps' before those union buggers get in again.
Truth is, if you don't have a credible strategy for growth, while at the same time pulling £81 billion out of the economy, you are doomed. Give them enough rope eh!
Harriet Harman is a legend, I just feel bad for the rodents who have been likened to Danny Alexander.