[the blog with the woofing dog] Ed Miliband. He's not a scab. He's an idiot.

[PhilH]

Ed Miliband.  He's not one of these.

Yesterday HarpyMarx wrote a blog post calling Ed Miliband a scab for telling Labour MPs to cross picket lines.

I think she gives him too much credit.  I present to you Exhibit A.

It's almost like he's got a piece of string coming out of his back tied to a little plastic ring.  I'm not sure who's stood behind him pulling on it though.

I've given my views on the way the Government has handled pension reform before.  That is my main argument on the issue.  The Government have got it wrong.

However, I'm also not sure what strikes will achieve, and I think possibly the unions have been a little too quick off the mark.  But I support their argument on pensions completely, and that's the most important thing to me.

Ed Miliband seems to have done it completely the other way round.  He's criticised the strike as his main line of attack, and then added that he also thinks the Government have been "reckless and provocative".

Politically this doesn't make any sense.  If he's saying (repeatedly) that both sides are in the wrong then surely he should be framing the Government as the main villain for not only their proposals, but also the way they have handled negotiations - which ultimately has led to the strikes.  He might also then add that he thinks the unions have been a little too quick to strike, if he really wants that to be his position.

The Government have seriously ballsed this up with their cack-handed approach (regardless of whether you support the strikes), and yet Ed Miliband has completely failed to capitalise on this.

Also, you're inevitably going to sound like a total moron if you keep giving the same verbatim answer to five different questions, no matter how sensible your argument is.

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Posted By PhilH to the blog with the woofing dog on 6/30/2011 10:29:00 PM