A great article by Boris in todays Telegraph. I'd be interested to know how the Labour apologists would counter this though? Is Boris correct? Are Liebour morally inept or is it all politicians?
What Ed Miliband should have said to the Hyde Park throng - Telegraph
So that's the alternative, eh! I was starting to wonder. After all those strategy reviews, all those blank bits of paper, we have finally heard Labour's response to the fiscal crisis bequeathed to the nation by Gordon Brown. The plan is to get a load of aggressive crusties and Lefties to attack the Ritz hotel, to storm Fortnum's, and to cause so much argy-bargy that 4,500 police officers are obliged to waste their time (and our money) in putting out the bonfires and controlling events as peacefully as they can.
That's Labour's long-awaited master-plan for kick-starting the economy. Isn't it grand? You may think I am being unfair to the youthful Labour leader Ed Miliband, who addressed the crowd of TUC marchers in Hyde Park. But I paid careful attention to his short speech, because I was interested to hear what this "alternative" was going to be – and on that crucial issue, which was the very point and essence of the entire march, I am afraid I heard two thirds of diddly squat.
He compared himself with the suffragettes. He likened himself, emetically, to Nelson Mandela. He announced that he was "friends" with absolutely everyone there and that he supported their "March for the Alternative", and just when I thought he was going to tell us what this might actually be – he vanished! We know that Labour now thinks it politic to accept that they made a disastrous hash of the economy, and indeed even Ed Balls was on telly the other night to say as much. We know that the Labour leadership also accepts that in order to be "credible" it has to agree that some cuts to state spending are necessary and desirable, and we know that Alistair Darling himself was planning at least 80 per cent of the savings now being proposed by the Coalition. All we need to know is how Labour would make these cuts, and in what ways Labour's programme differs from that of the Government. And if they won't come clean and say what they would cut, then their very presence at the march – and Miliband's speech – is the most disgusting cheat and fraud.
How can Balls join this throng of placards denouncing all cuts everywhere, when he won't come clean and say what he would cut himself? As I shall never tire of reminding him, Ed Miliband attended the same excellent north London school as I did, and yet sometimes I fear he has forgotten the high standards of intellectual honesty that are demanded of Old Primroseans. If he had an ounce of candour or decency, he would have made a very different speech on Saturday.
"Friends," he would have said, "I want you to know that I am generally opposed to cutting too far and too fast, and that is why Ed Balls and I think we could perhaps get away with significantly smaller cuts than those envisaged by the Government!" And the crowd roars its approval. "No cuts! No cuts!" they chant. At this, the honest version of Ed Miliband raises his hand in caution. "I didn't say no cuts, friends. We think we could maintain market confidence and go ahead with only 80 per cent of the cuts. Think of that. We – the party of Nelson Mandela, the suffragettes and the Tolpuddle martyrs – we would only institute four fifths of the evil Tory cuts!" By this stage his message is sinking in. Frowns of concentration are appearing.
A mutter is growing. "What about me?" comes the voice of an Equalities Impact Assessment Officer from a superfluous quango. "What about my job?"
And soon his cry would be taken up by voices around Hyde Park. "What about me?" they cry; and Ed boggles slowly at the mass of indignant humanity, like a Plasticine character made by Nick Park. "Er – I don't know!" he says. "It depends on what you are doing and whether you are really essential for frontline services." "We're all essential!" says the crowd. "I know, I know," says the stricken Miliband. "But we have got to make some savings somewhere. We can't afford to push interest rates up as high as they are in Portugal and Greece. That would be catastrophic. We have got to keep the confidence of the markets that we have a plan to curb the deficit – can't you see that? Even the Tory cuts aren't really cuts, they are only bringing the levels of state spending back, in real terms, to where it was in 2007."
But by this point the crowd is no longer listening. With a horrible gurgling cry they have flooded the stage and the last we see of Miliband is the insect-like flapping of his limbs as he is borne aloft and away in the general direction of the Serpentine. Which was why, of course, he kept his speech as short and empty as he did. All we have had from Labour is some generalised hatred of wealth-creators, especially in the City of London, and the intelligent proposal from a senior Labour figure that members of the financial services industry should be machine-gunned". In the absence of any other programme from the Left, it is perhaps not surprising that the extremists behave as they do. The sad thing is that in spite of their crocodile tears, Balls and Miliband will feel quietly satisfied by the disorder – a token, they will tell themselves, of the public feeling that is out there to exploit.
They will be content to see the police being unfairly attacked on all sides, for being too passive (the Right-wing press) or too brutal (the Guardian) and they will continue to blather on while saying nothing about what they would cut themselves. The real alternative is to cease talking ourselves down, to cut taxes as soon as possible, to create tens of thousands more apprenticeships for 18- to 24-year-olds, to repeal politically correct legislation, cut waste and invest in education and infrastructure, and remember that of all the major cities recently examined by a Citigroup survey, the UK capital had by far the greatest potential for growth. If this hypocritical silence is the best "alternative" Labour can come up with, they will remain in opposition for years.
That's Labour's long-awaited master-plan for kick-starting the economy. Isn't it grand? You may think I am being unfair to the youthful Labour leader Ed Miliband, who addressed the crowd of TUC marchers in Hyde Park. But I paid careful attention to his short speech, because I was interested to hear what this "alternative" was going to be – and on that crucial issue, which was the very point and essence of the entire march, I am afraid I heard two thirds of diddly squat.
He compared himself with the suffragettes. He likened himself, emetically, to Nelson Mandela. He announced that he was "friends" with absolutely everyone there and that he supported their "March for the Alternative", and just when I thought he was going to tell us what this might actually be – he vanished! We know that Labour now thinks it politic to accept that they made a disastrous hash of the economy, and indeed even Ed Balls was on telly the other night to say as much. We know that the Labour leadership also accepts that in order to be "credible" it has to agree that some cuts to state spending are necessary and desirable, and we know that Alistair Darling himself was planning at least 80 per cent of the savings now being proposed by the Coalition. All we need to know is how Labour would make these cuts, and in what ways Labour's programme differs from that of the Government. And if they won't come clean and say what they would cut, then their very presence at the march – and Miliband's speech – is the most disgusting cheat and fraud.
How can Balls join this throng of placards denouncing all cuts everywhere, when he won't come clean and say what he would cut himself? As I shall never tire of reminding him, Ed Miliband attended the same excellent north London school as I did, and yet sometimes I fear he has forgotten the high standards of intellectual honesty that are demanded of Old Primroseans. If he had an ounce of candour or decency, he would have made a very different speech on Saturday.
"Friends," he would have said, "I want you to know that I am generally opposed to cutting too far and too fast, and that is why Ed Balls and I think we could perhaps get away with significantly smaller cuts than those envisaged by the Government!" And the crowd roars its approval. "No cuts! No cuts!" they chant. At this, the honest version of Ed Miliband raises his hand in caution. "I didn't say no cuts, friends. We think we could maintain market confidence and go ahead with only 80 per cent of the cuts. Think of that. We – the party of Nelson Mandela, the suffragettes and the Tolpuddle martyrs – we would only institute four fifths of the evil Tory cuts!" By this stage his message is sinking in. Frowns of concentration are appearing.
A mutter is growing. "What about me?" comes the voice of an Equalities Impact Assessment Officer from a superfluous quango. "What about my job?"
And soon his cry would be taken up by voices around Hyde Park. "What about me?" they cry; and Ed boggles slowly at the mass of indignant humanity, like a Plasticine character made by Nick Park. "Er – I don't know!" he says. "It depends on what you are doing and whether you are really essential for frontline services." "We're all essential!" says the crowd. "I know, I know," says the stricken Miliband. "But we have got to make some savings somewhere. We can't afford to push interest rates up as high as they are in Portugal and Greece. That would be catastrophic. We have got to keep the confidence of the markets that we have a plan to curb the deficit – can't you see that? Even the Tory cuts aren't really cuts, they are only bringing the levels of state spending back, in real terms, to where it was in 2007."
But by this point the crowd is no longer listening. With a horrible gurgling cry they have flooded the stage and the last we see of Miliband is the insect-like flapping of his limbs as he is borne aloft and away in the general direction of the Serpentine. Which was why, of course, he kept his speech as short and empty as he did. All we have had from Labour is some generalised hatred of wealth-creators, especially in the City of London, and the intelligent proposal from a senior Labour figure that members of the financial services industry should be machine-gunned". In the absence of any other programme from the Left, it is perhaps not surprising that the extremists behave as they do. The sad thing is that in spite of their crocodile tears, Balls and Miliband will feel quietly satisfied by the disorder – a token, they will tell themselves, of the public feeling that is out there to exploit.
They will be content to see the police being unfairly attacked on all sides, for being too passive (the Right-wing press) or too brutal (the Guardian) and they will continue to blather on while saying nothing about what they would cut themselves. The real alternative is to cease talking ourselves down, to cut taxes as soon as possible, to create tens of thousands more apprenticeships for 18- to 24-year-olds, to repeal politically correct legislation, cut waste and invest in education and infrastructure, and remember that of all the major cities recently examined by a Citigroup survey, the UK capital had by far the greatest potential for growth. If this hypocritical silence is the best "alternative" Labour can come up with, they will remain in opposition for years.
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