Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Has Ed sent one of his regular retweets yet?

Bones McCoy wrote: ↑Thu Oct 20, 2022 3:28 pm Has Ed sent one of his regular retweets yet?

If Ed M had won in 2015 & was somehow still Prime Minister, his government would probably be passing legislation standardising the size of traffic cones right now. Sounds boring, but way more preferable compared to the current daily dumpster fire.

It has rather gone by the board in the aftermath of the sturm und drang of the Corbyn years, but I can still remember when the Labour right were briefing against Ed as a dangerously left wing menace. Happier days.

It's always amused me that people have just rehabilated Ed Milliband and forgotten his shortcomings as leader.

Philip Marlow wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2023 6:48 pm It has rather gone by the board in the aftermath of the sturm und drang of the Corbyn years, but I can still remember when the Labour right were briefing against Ed as a dangerously left wing menace. Happier days.

Yeah I haven't forgetten Dan Hodges that doesn't mean I'm going to pretend that Ed wasn't a bad leader and he didn't help pave the way for Corbyn.

Philip Marlow wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2023 6:48 pm It has rather gone by the board in the aftermath of the sturm und drang of the Corbyn years, but I can still remember when the Labour right were briefing against Ed as a dangerously left wing menace. Happier days.

It wasn't that strong, except after the Syria vote. But it wasn't constructive.

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2023 7:25 pm It's always amused me that people have just rehabilated Ed Milliband and forgotten his shortcomings as leader.

Like William Hague, he’s found a role that’s working out better than leader.

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2023 7:25 pm It's always amused me that people have just rehabilated Ed Milliband and forgotten his shortcomings as leader.

This is the difference between being a decent man with talents but wrong place at the wrong time, and an inept, vain man for whom there is never a right place and never a right time in terms of the rest of us, because his right place and time is lecturing a rapt, long-since converted and intellectually limited audience who won’t push him with difficult questions or ask him anything about policy trickier than ‘does Jeremy agree that peace would be nice?’

Oh don't get me wrong I don't hate Miliband and there was a period between the omnishambles budget and the whole Falkirk fiasco where he was actually making progress. The rehabilabitation is more referring to how those on the left have ignored things such as saying on national television these strikes are wrong over and over again amongst other things.

it was down to him that we ended up with Corbyn. Judge him against that first

davidjay wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 10:27 pm it was down to him that we ended up with Corbyn. Judge him against that first

Yep, whatever else he might achieve in the future, that will remain his biggest impact on British politics.

davidjay wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 10:27 pm it was down to him that we ended up with Corbyn. Judge him against that first

Obviously this was a well-intended but disastrous decision. But you also have to wonder how things would have turned out without it. We’d potentially have had Burnham or (ideally) Cooper as leader. A more enthusiastic leader may have prevented Brexit - but only just and that wound could still be lingering.

What I’m basically saying is, the one silver lining from all this is that the right had their own way for years and utterly, utterly fucked everything. They destroyed themselves, proved Brexit was and is a disaster (and set the wheels in motion for a rejoining where we as a nation will have to be more cooperative and less veto-happy), and turned the husk of their party into a crankfest. They innoculated us all for a generation against bullshit and bullshitters of the likes of the now disgraced Boris. Farage is eating kangaroo anus for coins. Cummings is a widely-mocked joke.

It’s a lost decade, and the damage may take as long again to undo. But it can still be undone - the NHS and BBC saved, the UK’s reputation salvaged, projects renationalised. And it has potentially destroyed the Conservative Party as we know it for decades, and Labour is re-galvanised against the infiltration of the trots. Given the far right drifting in in places in Europe and elsewhere, I just wonder if the crash and burn will - in the long term - have saved us from a slower, less obvious, more malignant and harder to reverse descent.

Maybe, but to be honest I'd rather not have had to find out.

And it was a decision he was warned several times not to make - but he ignored the advice of some very experienced and savvy comrades.

I'm afraid that I think the man's a twat.

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Mon Nov 27, 2023 11:34 am And it was a decision he was warned several times not to make - but he ignored the advice of some very experienced and savvy comrades.

I'm afraid that I think the man's a twat.

Let's also not forget that he lost in 2015 despite being the bookies' favourite and up against Callme Dave.

To add to that, it seemed likely that he resisted the views of the party in order to better reflect the views of some very leftwing union leaders who supported him in the leadership elections - against his brother, whom they did not like.

Blimey, Crabcakes. Maybe you should change your name to Pangloss. Like David, I’d have preferred not to have had to find out, but I get your thrust. I’m more than just a little worried about the level of effectiveness of the innoculation against Johnsonian bullshit of which you speak.

Abernathy wrote: ↑Mon Nov 27, 2023 12:35 pm Blimey, Crabcakes. Maybe you should change your name to Pangloss. Like David, I’d have preferred not to have had to find out, but I get your thrust. I’m more than just a little worried about the level of effectiveness of the innoculation against Johnsonian bullshit of which you speak.

To be honest, I’d just been reading an article about ‘butterfly effect’ incidents where something tiny or unconnected leads to a wholly unpredictable chain of events. So I suspect very much influenced by that

What I’m basically saying is, the one silver lining from all this is that the right had their own way for years and utterly, utterly fucked everything. They destroyed themselves, proved Brexit was and is a disaster (and set the wheels in motion for a rejoining where we as a nation will have to be more cooperative and less veto-happy), and turned the husk of their party into a crankfest. They innoculated us all for a generation against bullshit and bullshitters of the likes of the now disgraced Boris.

Next year the UK might be the only country in the Western world having a post populist GE. The Tories don’t even want to mention Brexit and immigration has fallen way down the list of priority issues in the polls. There’s a fair few people out there who’ve realise what tits they made of themselves getting whipped up in the hysteria. The Tories have tried some new populist hats; anti net zero, statues, woke bank accounts etc but it’s all just wiffle with no traction beyond its own looney base. So now they’ve fallen back into their Thatcherite comfort zone of tax cuts and prudent house keeping (too fucking late for that). Yes, it’s the economy, stupid.

For his faults, I would still be willing to sit down and listen to Ed Milliband for his take on certain political matters compared to a different certain ex-Labour leader given that he has some important experience that could be useful in a potential Starmer-led government in the future, plus that he accepts that he screwed up in 2015 and didn't try to wriggle out of that, unlike certain fellow travellers of the other one I mentioned giving excuses like "we won the argument" - Milliband actually wanted his Labour party to be a party of government.

Then again, I'm not a member.