In an interview in the Guardian, Neil Kinnock has said that the Daily Mail attacks on Ed Miliband were worse than those suffered by his predecessors. He said that the press had been determined to “scrag Ed from the start”, because, according to Kinnock, “they decided David was going to win, so he was their candidate, and they hate being wrong. The whole herd – with some very laudable exceptions – just hate being wrong. And one of the reasons for the antagonism towards Ed, from day one, was the fact that he beat their candidate.”
He referred to his own personal attacks at the hands of the Mail – “It’s how you look – ginger, Welsh, blatant references all the time – “How could you possibly consider having a prime minister who grew up in a prefab?”” – but after this week, he said:
“With continuing amazement – I didn’t think my capacity for amazement was stretchable, but I’ve discovered it is – I think the form of attack they’re using against Ed is worse than I had.”
Part of the antagonism, he said, must come from the fact that Ed has, to some extent, proved the Mail wrong:
“Because the reality is, the man is very calm, very courageous, he’s highly intelligent, he’s got imagination as well as classical intelligence, and he keeps on producing insights which are scorned for a week and then they become part of the political vocabulary six months later – squeezed middle, responsible capitalism, one nation.”
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