[Closed] Why do so many people have a problem with Miliband ?

I don't.

stabbed his brother in the back

You have answered your own question there.

not sure he stabbed his brother in the back, he ran for the same position his brother did and he won

doesnt that just make him good at running for things?

I used to enter judo tournaments against my brother and I always beat him (well apart from once, but that was a fluke)

most people hate him coz the daily mail and rupert murdoch told them hes odd

not sure he stabbed his brother in the back, he ran for the same position his brother did and he won

doesnt that just make him good at running for things?

This.

he ran for the same position his brother did and [s]he won[/s] the unions chose him as he would be easier to manipulate than his brother

I think my wife put it best when she said 'he's just too ugly to be taken seriously with other world leaders'

You either have to be 'non ugly' or at the least look powerful.

He's neither

Because they are superficial, and consider (what they have been told about) image, rather than substance?

I think my wife put it best when she said 'he's just too ugly to be taken seriously with other world leaders'

I despair.

I couldn't trust him and the other Ed to run a country.

Awkward, no charisma, backstabbing, weird, spineless, annoying, clueless, out of touch, always whinging & whining, had very little positive to say about anything over the last 5 years, can't seem to acnowledge or learn from Labour's past mistakes, no apparent clear sense of direction, kneejerk policies, public school boy, wet behind the ears, not a natural leader, talks about problems - not solutions, more bothered about becoming PM than the good of the UK.

Could say some of these things a lot of politicians from all main parties but unfortunately Edd's the whole sorry package in my eyes. John Smith, now there was a great Labour leader and someone I'd have been happy to vote for.

As I posted on the election thread, he is an idiot, see -

A good article on why you shouldn't vote for Ed as he is an economic idiot:

[url= http://www.paulormerod.com/does-miliband-understand-the-importance-of-incentives/ ]Ed and incentives[/url]

Because it's the easiest way to put a large section of the public off voting for him. You don't need to explain policy or competence you just need to say look at him, he's a twonk. You wouldn't trust a twonk to run the country would you?

Sadly, that level of simplicity works for a lot of people.

I just can't take him seriously, not just him though his mate Balls as well. Neither of them have anything about them. Yeah he looks funny and can't talk, but i'm talking about his aura, he just doesn't give me any confidence he could stand up there with the rest of the worlds leaders and be taken seriously by any of them. He just a bit wet IMO.

His brother on the other hand would probably win this election. IMO again.

He just reminds me of a weasel in both looks and mannerism. I feel I could not trust him.
Previously been limp in opposition. He just doesn't have a lot going to make him stand out as a leader.

but i'm talking about his aura

Too bad David Icke isn't up for election, he'd be your perfect candidate.

Why bother with all this democracy BS - let's just get Simon Cowell to select the most marketable candidate.

Judgemental as people are.. Ugly weird guy who they don't like the sound of.

In terms of appearance, he rather seems to be the closest thing to a normal person in UK politics.

He started off pretty weakly but seems to be rather reasonable now - when you take into account the game that they're all forced to play.

Competency. Quite simple really.

Balls is much brighter and often talks sense (until he gets into political scraps)

Still we need a genuine LW opposition to the SNP to balance the coalition going forward 😉

1. because outside of politics he's never had as much as a paper round by way of responsibility.
2. he's seeded "class" based division whilst himself being privately educated and has inherited £millions and on the other side has created a sense of "entitlement" in those who could pay their own way but choose not to (so not people who genuinely can't e.g. for health reasons)
3. He talks about the "rich" and the rich needing to pay more but himself lives in a £3m house that was inherited with reportedly little / no tax paid as a result of a series of beneficial trusts.
4. Because he repeatedly says things he knows to be untrue - he'd rather score cheap political points and get himself into power than work constructively to progress the lot of everyone in Britain
5. Because he apparently has a sense of a divine right that he will be Prime Minister
6. Because even though everyone else in the country can see that Ed Balls is useless, he still knows best.

Has a UK politician suffered so much abuse at the hands of the right wing press?

For Neil Kinnock & Michael Foot the abuse went well beyond differences on economic policy. I suspect that if John Smith had been in office long enough they would have had a pretty good go at him to.

John Major had a pretty hard time all round for either being too right wing or not right wing enough

1. because outside of politics he's never had as much as a paper round by way of responsibility.
2. he's seeded "class" based division whilst himself being privately educated and has inherited £millions and on the other side has created a sense of "entitlement" in those who could pay their own way but choose not to (so not people who genuinely can't e.g. for health reasons)
3. He talks about the "rich" and the rich needing to pay more but himself lives in a £3m house that was inherited with reportedly little / no tax paid as a result of a series of beneficial trusts.
4. Because he repeatedly says things he knows to be untrue - he'd rather score cheap political points and get himself into power than work constructively to progress the lot of everyone in Britain
5. Because he apparently has a sense of a divine right that he will be Prime Minister

How does this distinguish him from any of three main party leaders?

3. He talks about the "rich" and the rich needing to pay more but himself lives in a £3m house that was inherited with reportedly little / no tax paid as a result of a series of beneficial trusts.

If he's advocating the closing of loopholes from which he or his family might benefit, isn't that a brave thing to do?

He has very little force of personality, he really looks like anyone and anything could just roll over him. This was summed at perfectly by the debate clips of Sturgeon suggesting she would make him PM. He was elected leader of the Labour party as the Unions refused to back his brother as they felt him too right leaning (or New Labour if you like). He definitely stabbed him in the back. Ironically David might have been elected PM this time round with a majority and Ed could have been chancellor or foreign secretary, as it stands it's quite possible Ed will be finished politically.

I see the world "limp" used above by @graig, that's perfect.

So we don't trust Ed & Ed to run the country but we do call me Dave and Gideon? 😐

Good lord.

If he's advocating the closing of loopholes from which he or his family might benefit, isn't that a brave thing to do?

Backed by the unions? Oh dear God no! the last thing you need in politics is a candidate backed by the representatives of the working population. Particulalry in the LABOUR party - just madness!

...after stuffing the UK with a ridiculous legal obligation to cut CO2 by 80% (!WTFO?) in all his time at DECC he didnt manage to get a single new nuclear power station plan in motion.

He has a fundamental lack of understanding of how the business world thinks. Whether you think business is a force for good or not, to achieve your objectives whether positive or indeed negative for business, you need to work with you have got and you will only be able to do this effectively if you understand where the "other side" is coming from.

If you're talking about inherited money then don't forget that Call Me Dave's father left him money in his will that's in a tax haven. Looking forward to hearing more on this!

I agree the demonising of Kinnock and Foot was worse.

So it seems that the election is going to be decided on looks and what the Mail says. If that is the case we are all screwed.

If we are going on looks then how the hell has Pickles ever been voted for or Gove.

[img] [/img]

Dave was just dreamier.

sleazy?, I thought deeds of variation were standard practice and I believe it was done by his mothers accountant

Backed by the unions? Oh dear God no! the last thing you need in politics is a candidate backed by the representatives of the working population. Particulalry in the LABOUR party - just madness!

Blair and New Labour delivered 13 years of government by distancing themselves form the unions.

Labour screwed the pooch making him boss.
"Red Ed", son of a marxist. Not for me thanks. Not nearly statesman-like enough either, they'd run rings around him (or that's the impression I get).

It should hardly be a surprise that the labour party leader has the backing of them though should it?

He changed the will of his dead father, very sleazy

Well, not really.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/12/did-ed-miliband-avoid-inheritance-tax-parents-home-deed-of-variation

well I think his support of the levenson proposals has done him no favours with teh press either

I bet he has a limp handshake 🙂

chomp - Member

I think my wife put it best when she said 'he's just too ugly to be taken seriously with other world leaders'

Because Angela Merkel is so hot.

It's the way he's constantly following other people's agendas that bothers me. He can be weird, funny looking, sandwich-incompetent, all that, shouldn't make any difference. But he's spent the last 5 years dancing to David Cameron's tune and that does. Obviously that's not all down to him, a party leader's just the figurehead for a load of policy wonks and tacticians but ultimately it's his responsibility.

I've said this before- I think he gives the best fight he can, and sometimes he does damn well, but it's always to the rules he's given. That's not the job. And the really weird thing is, even when he does that he still gets villified by the press so why not take the risk? He's basically got nothing to lose there

I would still rather have him than the plastic man and his shitehawk army though.

He's an incompetent apparatchick who f*d it up last time and wants to do it all over again.

How is his bladder control? Clearly this is the sort of genius we want in charge of our foreign policy ...

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2011/dec/12/david-cameron-full-bladder-technique

DrJ - bit surprised - however if you'd said he was full of shit......

The thought of him representing the UK on the world stage makes me cringe. YMMV

Cameron has made the UK irrelevant on the World stage due to his panic over UKIP...

He's an incompetent apparatchick who f*d it up last time and wants to do it all over again.

Are we still talking about the Myth of Labour causing the recession? Aren't you a news international employee?

No, and... no.

No, and... no.

OK, so give us a clue - what ARE you talking about?

[i]I would still rather have him than the plastic man and his shitehawk army though.[/i]

This + a million

He changed the will of his dead father, very sleazy

Because Angela Merkel is so hot.

Cameron has made the UK irrelevant on the World stage due to his panic over UKIP...

If he keeps his promise(*) and there is a referendum on EU membership, heaven help us if the voters make their decision on the basis of who has the nicest smile!

(*) I know, I know.

Remember how in Yes Minister, the two candidates for prime minister were both so offensive to the supporters of the other one that either of them winning was bound to result in an huge and damaging split in the party, so they settled on a 'compromise candidate' who was tolerable to both factions, but fundementally incompetent and unable to make either a principled stand or a decision, which allowed those who really ran things to carry on doing what they wanted?

Essentially, that's Ed, a compromise candidate with too much of the Jim Hacker about him to ever be pm.

Edit: found it - you can just see Len Mcclusky and Peter Mandelson sitting round the table discussing the new leader of the Labour Party

Why did the renowned socialist and marxist Ralph Milliband have a £3M house?

Because Marx lost? 😉

[img] ?w=540&h=720[/img]

Because houses are worth loads more now than 5o years ago???

Because houses are worth loads more now than 5o years ago???

I just want someone who isn't a Politician (yes I know). Someone who cuts through bullshit, doesnt talk in soundbites, cuts corruption, sleaze and spending.

I don't care if the leader can speak on tv (actors can do that FFS), or give speeches (again the same). I just want someone who can lead the country.

As such none are getting my vote. None of the above.

If The Unions really were interested in the working population we would b much better off. Len Mclusky is all about power. Having seen him run a self serving strike in my company a few years ago, the further he is from power the better.

For the last 4 years, Milibands policy has been "I disagree with whatever he says". Now h wheels out whatever policy his focus groups tell him will be popular in a desperate bid for power.

"No pact with the SNP" Really?? Watch this space.

For the record, I can't stand any of the main leaders. Of all of them I prefer Clegg, but he's about to be wiped out.

Someone who cuts through bullshit, doesnt talk in soundbites, cuts corruption, sleaze and spending.

Pickles for PM?

he's a puppet. told what to say and do. unable to think on his feet. avoids hard questions like the plague by just talking about something else (normally a soundbite or scripted rhetoric), even when challenged - and more-so than any other politician. un-engaging and charmless. wet.
he's just incongruous with the position he holds.

really find him irritating.
But its his way he deals with questions on stuff like the leaders debates that bugs me.
asking everyone their name, telling people that he is about to explain the answer,
I just hate that false coaching crap that he has been taught, getting off his chair and wailking up to the audience etc, its so fake an crap.

But basically, his policies seem to be fag packet stuff that get slaughtered. stuff like the mansion tax, the extra nurses in the NHS, and now he is complaining about hospitals facing a debt crisis, they are facing that because of the PPI deals he and his chums saddled us with last time around.
They are so incompetent its just laughable.

I bet he has a limp handshake

I shook George Osborne's hand once when he was first standing for parliament in Tatton. I can't imagine that anyone could have a weaker one. It was like holding the hand of a three year old.

Has a UK politician suffered so much abuse at the hands of the right wing press?

This makes for an interesting read: https://opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/oliver-huitson/press-campaign-so-far -'coup'-gathers-pace/feed (you may need to copy and paste)

I'd also like to read something that has been tracking The Guardian and The Mirror to see what they're been saying - it'd make for an interesting comparison.

No one could seriously imagine him as the CEO or Chairman of a company and yet he could be representing us around the world.

The amount of people spouting off as if they they know for a fact what they are saying is true when it's actually bulls**t they've picked up from the right wing press is amusing.

I wonder how big Labours majority would be if the press was neutral, or at least 50/50?

CMD is a Tory, he looks like a tory he acts like a Tory.

But Ed is a Labour leader, he just looks and acts like a Tory.
I would have more interest in voting Labour if the Labour leaders were representative of the working people they claim to represent. Kinnock, Smith, etc, I just feel Labour have lost their Soul and their policies reflect this.

from the BBC:

The Independent says it was backing a continuation of the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition

He's an incompetent apparatchick who f*d it up last time and wants to do it all over again.

chestrockwell - Member

The amount of people spouting off as if they they know for a fact what they are saying is true when it's actually bulls**t they've picked up from the right wing press is amusing.

This. So much this.

It would still have been a comparatively expensive house when he bought it

Really? I thought some places, like Notting Hill, went from slums to megabucks in a generation?

how exactly did he stab his brother in the back?

Really poor choice of words from me, wrong thing to say.

I wonder how big Labours majority would be if the press was neutral, or at least 50/50?

My question was how big would the Labour majority be if brother David was leader not Ed ?

I despair at everyone who spouts the 'he's not prime minister material', 'not strong enough', 'will look bad on the world stage', 'he's a bit of a geek' line. It's not the bloody school playground where you try to get in with the hard lads. And even if that was a valid argument, how on earth does some prancing eton boy pass those criteria when Miliband doesn't? They're both mirror images of each other. The only difference is that there's concrete evidence now that Cameron isn't a strong leader (his abject performance in Europe being one of many examples) whereas Miliband is still an unknown quantity.

I think Ed has more credibility living in a £2-3m house his father bought than Bob Crow earning £100k a year as a trade unionist and living in subsidised housing

It's not the bloody school playground where you try to get in with the hard lads

it kind of is though. politics is about influence.

uponthedowns - Member

No one could seriously imagine him as the CEO or Chairman of a company

I easily can 😕 Yes a lot of them are Cameron-like teflon-smooth masters of the universe types, especially the most visible ones, but most that I've met have been just normal dudes.

It's sad that he is probably a genuinely principled guy in there somewhere, but I do think you need a degree of gravitas to be PM. It may be more a sign of me getting old that I look at someone like that and imagine him running for student union president. He looks uncomfortable in whatever skin he's being presented in.

The closest equivalent I can think is Hague when he was put up by the tories a while back. I'm sure there was a similar level of hilarity over his awkwardness in sections of the press.

TBH, I'm sure there is as much surprise within the Labour Party at the possibility of forming a government after this election. I suspect that this scenario was not the one envisaged by many of his colleagues as they planned their own careers even further down the line.

Gravitas? Picture this:

[i]Mr Putin, I must warn you that if Russian forces do not begin to withdraw to the Ukranian border by midnight tonight, I will have no option but to order air strikes against strategic targets, no doubt resulting in significant loss of life[/i]

Imagine Cameron doing the same.

"Look, I must warn you that LONG TERM ECONOMIC PLAN if Russian forces do not begin to withdraw to the Ukranian border by midnight tonight, let me be quite clear, I will have no LONG TERM ECONOMIC PLAN option but to order air LONG TERM ECONOMIC PLAN strikes LONG TERM ECONOMIC PLAN against strategic targets, no doubt resulting in significant loss of life (though even though it doesn't cause half the loss of life I promised it will, I'll still claim it did) and it'll be Ed Miliband's fault".

And behind him will be a big picture of Alex Salmond stealing sweeties from a child.

uponthedowns - Member

No one could seriously imagine him as the CEO or Chairman of a company

I easily can Yes a lot of them are Cameron-like teflon-smooth masters of the universe types, especially the most visible ones, but most that I've met have been just normal dudes.

You honestly think he comes across as normal?

I think that he has a massive press campaign against him depicting him as weird, but yes, he seems to be just some guy. Cameron on the other hand still manages to come across as a shitbag despite having a tame press trying to depict him as the greatest man in the world. Again, I know which I prefer.

He definitely stabbed him in the back

Everybody keeps saying this, but there's no evidence for it (that I know of). They both stood for election, one won, the the other didn't.

I don't trust him or like him, yet I don't get the 'he stabbed his own brother in the back' thing either.

I kind of take it for granted that to get to the top of any party you fought a few people along the way, it just so happened that in this case one was his bro. Certainly wouldn't put me off voting for him, it's his policies that do that!

Mr Putin, I must warn you that if Russian forces do not begin to withdraw to the Ukranian border by midnight tonight, I will have no option but to order air strikes against strategic targets, no doubt resulting in significant loss of life

FFS! What is it that you want? A cantakerous alpha male banging his fist on the table and shouting 'come and have a go then!'. Grow up. And like Cameron has any of these qualities? He couldn't even stop some european bureaucrat being elected EU president, as despite all his chest beating, all his euro counterparts simply laughed and ignored him.