Red Ed can't make his mind up

Last Saturday, Ed Miliband made a major speech to the Fabian Society which warrants close scrutiny not least of all for what it tells us about the man himself.

It seems that the trouble with the Mighty Milipede could be that he simply can't make his mind up...

Having accused the Conservatives of making no effort in the Oldham East by-election on order to favour the LibDems, he went on in his speech to say that "David Cameron became the first Prime Minister in recent years to campaign in a by-election." Sounds a little contradictory to me, Ed...

Then he went on to call for Labour to show "a willingness to reach out to others beyond our party at the heart of the way we do our politics" having just slagged off the Conservatives and LibDems as a "coalition based on political convenience rather than values." Seems to me like you calling on your own party to do exactly what you are condemning.

And then there is his comment that Labour's "managerialism took us away from the instincts and values of the broad progressive majority" whilst at the same time attacking the coalition government for decentralising decision making.

"Of course I am proud of the achievements of our last Labour government" he goes on to say, but then again admits they were guilty of "failing to properly regulate the banks, ignoring concerns about economic security".

Mr Miliband says of the country's woes "it was the crisis that caused high levels of public borrowing" but then goes on to say "our economy was too vulnerable to the crisis because we were too reliant on financial services", the very financial services that Gordon Brown as Chancellor and later as Prime Minister derugulated!

But for me the best statement in his speech was when he said : "when we you see some of our leading bankers constantly threatening to leave the country, trying to hold the country to ransom and thinking only of themselves, it makes me angry."

Well I'm sorry Ed, but when I see rampant left wing socialists manipulating the trades union movement in order to try to bring down a democratically elected government and, what's more, to use your words "trying to hold the country to ransom and thinking only of themselves", then it makes me absolutely bloody furious!

And the word 'hypocrite' springs readily to mind...