Ed Miliband is getting married tomorrow. It’s supposed to be the happiest day of your life, and well it might be, especially compared to the depressing string of bad news he’s facing today.
First up, Alex Salmond. The newly-reelected Scottish first minister was extremely scathing about Labour and its leader in a recent interview with James Macintyre of Prospect. And given that Salmond has just lead the SNP to a majority in Holyrood while Miliband himself told the Progress Annual Conference last week that his party’s results north of the border were “terrible”, it’s easy to understand why Salmond doesn’t have any good words for Labour’s leader. He said:
“I don’t think they’ve got any big figures left—if they did they’d be leader of the party. [Ed] Miliband is the weakest Labour leader I’ve seen in my political career. He’s not Neil Kinnock, who to be fair was actually a good motivator for the Labour party.”
Ouch. To be compared unfavourably with Neil Kinnock is to be damned indeed. Of course, Salmond leads a rival party, so his criticism isn’t wholly unexpected. But the fact that he so comprehensively dismisses the national leader of a party that has traditionally done very well in Scotland is testament both to how well Salmond has done, and how very low his opinion is of Ed Mililband.
Next, Vince Cable. In an interview in the New Statesman, He too is harsh in his criticism of the direction Ed has taken the Labour party:
“What they're doing at the moment is tactically very clever but strategically very stupid. Ed Miliband comes across as sort of very clever but tactically smart, rather than strategic, and all this endless point-scoring, I find, isn't helping him or anybody else. It's short-term.”
The two shared a platform campaigning for a yes vote in the AV referendum, but it seems that Vince doesn’t exactly have a high opinion of Ed’s political acumen. Vince might be easily tricked by Telegraph hacks and find it difficult to bite his tongue, but he is still a major force in the Liberal Democrat party, highly regarded by many lefty voters across the country. His poor opinion isn’t worth having.
Finally, the voters themselves have had something to say about Ed today. The latest Ipsos Mori political monitor has relatively encouraging figures for Labour, but bad news for Ed himself. One in three people think Labour is ready to form a government, but only 17% think Ed Miliband is ready to be the next prime minister.
With David Cameron basking in the reflected glory of the state visit and successfully flipping burgers with Barack, Ed needs to come up with some good news. Fast.
Comments
Matt G / May 26 2011 12:57pm
Yeah but you're a Conservative orientated magazine run by Conservative Iain Dale so your analysis is inevitably tainted
Caroline Crampton / May 26 2011 1:29pm
Matt, we’re a non-partisan magazine. The editorial team are not campaigners for any political party. We simply call it as we see it.
barleyherb / May 26 2011 1:53pm
Non-partisan or otherwise, this is a bit thin. Vince Cable is as contractually obliged to slag off Ed Miliband as Alex Salmond is. Why didn't you just report the poll?
Jeremy Poynton / May 27 2011 12:45pm
Anyone with half a brain can see Miliband isn't up to it. Just check his record in DEFRA and the FCO and you can see he is not up to any sort of high office. Student politico at best.
T. Hanlon / May 27 2011 4:01pm
More politically partisan guff from this Tory-loving publication.
So members of two rival parties criticise Ed Miliband and he's supposed to be worried?
Labour are leading in every poll going. Perhaps it's your man Cameron who ought to be worried given he hasn't managed to win a general election yet, and he isn't likely to in the future either.
T. Hanlon / May 27 2011 4:16pm
More politically partisan guff from this Tory-loving publication.
So members of two rival parties criticise Ed Miliband and he's supposed to be worried?
Labour are leading in every poll going. Perhaps it's your man Cameron who ought to be worried given he hasn't managed to win a general election yet, and he isn't likely to in the future either.
richard / June 01 2011 2:35pm
Its not just the obvious hopelessness of Ed Milliband leadership but also the blind conviction of many in his party that they are winning the argument (and anyway the Tories lost the general election) that is making labour not only unelectable but heading for disaster.
Also the burned out husk of new Labour (which is what Ed is really presiding over) is conspicuously failing to see just how out of touch (and often just plain nasty) they are - as the pro Milliband comments here eloquently testify.
Unless the economy tanks and there is chaos a la 1974 I dont think most people even know the name of the next likely labour PM.