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1. Chunky fonts and black-and-white filters make a montage of giant pictures of Ed Miliband a surprising design hit.
See the remarkably good-looking interview here.
2. He won’t read this article.
Ed Miliband told BuzzFeed:
It’s always a good idea not to read the newspapers… I don’t read much British news. You get a lot of advice in the newspapers about what you should do. It’s much more important to follow your own path and stick to your own path. I’ve made that a rule in the last three and a half years.
3. He relies on his aides and a US news aggregator for keeping up with current affairs.
The interview reveals:
… he really means the part about ignoring the news. There are no TV screens showing rolling news channels in his office and he has no newspapers delivered to his home. Instead he relies on aides to summarise what’s going on in the world.
Miliband, wearing a red tie and with his BlackBerry on the table, says his favourite news website is RealClearPolitics, an American site that aggregates political news stories, where he keeps up with what he sees as a new global politics of inequality.
4. He’s wary of Twitter.
The Labour leader admits to a “decidedly mixed record” on the social media site. In January 2012, he tweeted about the death of Bob Holness, the host of Blockbusters, but misspelt the programme’s name in an embarrassing gaffe as “Blackbusters”.
5. He says people think he’s “weird” because he’s on track to becoming PM.
The press people who don’t like us have been saying that [I’m weird] for some time. It comes with the territory. I think the heart of this is people think we are in a position to win the election and there are some people who don’t want us to win this election.
6. He’s trying to tackle the Ukip problem by saying he understands their supporters.
The vast, vast majority of people who voted UKIP are concerned for understandable reasons. It’s not about prejudice. It’s about genuine concern about the country having changed.
7. He’s tentatively talking about immigration.
The interview reports that he insists his party must move away from the idea that “if you’re concerned about immigration you’re prejudiced”.
8. He’s still defending his ‘cost-of-living crisis’ slogan.
It’s not defunct, he insists:
Any good news in the economy is a good thing, any time things get better is a good thing,” he insists. “But as I go around the country and talk to people and they will say – I’m on a short hours contract, I can’t make ends meet, I’m worried about my son or daughter getting a house.
Even people who consider themselves relatively well off are saying where is this country going and what’s in it for me. Somewhere along the way ordinary working people who were struggling got left behind. It started before the financial crisis – or you could date this before the financial crisis. I personally think it’s got a lot worse under this government.
9. He’s taking heart from what he sees as the rise of the global left.
In the US version of the interview, which describes Miliband as “an unapologetically pro-American figure”, he says:
There’s massive change happening in our country: globalization and opening up of the world and that has big profound economic and social implications… Fundamentally this goes to what our campaign in 2015 and what Obama 2012 share in common: how to restore what the U.S. would call the American dream, with a strong middle class.
If you look at some of the debates in America about inequality … President Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Bill de Blasio are talking about similar things.
10. Even his own children aren’t supporters…
… Of his favourite football team, Leeds United. His two sons are apparently more interested in Arsenal.
11. He chillaxes too.
In an echo of the PM admitting his addiction to online app game Angry Birds, he tells BuzzFeed his favourite diversion is the Major League Baseball app on his iPad.
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