Is Ed Miliband A Man Of Yesterday?

Ed Miliband the Labour leader has stated that "David Cameron is squeezing the living standards of ordinary families, he wants to make it easier to sack workers and he is letting the banks off the hook."

Dealing first with the Banks, this is absolute balderdash because the man who ruined the UK banks by taking the power of regulation away from the Bank of England was none other than the ex Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street as the Bank is known clearly knew a lot more about banking regulation than Ed Milband's predecessor as leader of the Labour party ,Gordon Brown.

Dealing with the point about letting go workers all that has been mooted is a simple return to where legislation used to be. It was for many years that an employee could only bring a claim for unfair dismissal if they had worked for an employer for more than two years as opposed to one year which it is now. Many employers are put off taking people on due to the high incidence of what are often less than genuine cases of unfair dismissal. What is wrong with a two year period? I would say nothing to a genuine employee.

Dealing with the squeeze on living standards I assume he is referring to the recent VAT increase from 17.5% to 20%. The last Labour chancellor Alistair Darling had not ruled out an rise in VAT. One of the biggest financial pressures is that on petrol and the fuel multiplier was introduced by Labour.

I think that the time has come for Ed Miliband to face the truth that his party when in power introduced a much relaxed system of banking supervsion with terrible results. It was his party who Knighted Sir Fred Goodwin the previous chief excecutive of The Royal Bank of Scotland now some 80% owned by the British tax payer.

When in power Labour sold 400 Metric Tonnes of Gold at US $275 an oz compared to a market price today in excess of US $1,375. This represents a loss at todays value of just under 10 Billion pounds. That is the cost of keeping the troops in Afghanistan for some 2 years.Guess whose initials appear on the memos relating to this sale none other than Ed Miliband's!

Gordon Brown at his first budget in 1998 removed the ability of pension funds to be able to recover the tax on investment income. In so doing he struck a massive blow at the ordinary working person. When Labour came to power the UK pension industry was one of the strongest but it is now one of the weakest.

The Labour government sent British troops to war in Afgahnistan with out providing the proper armoured patrol vehicles.

Gordon Brown the ex Prime Minister goes down in history as the only PM to give incorrect information to a Government enquiry (The Chillcot Enquiry). He was forced into a very damaging retreat after he finally admitted that he had misled the Iraq Inquiry and Parliament about the funds handed to the armed forces. Senior military figures complained bitterly after the Prime Minster told Sir John Chilcot's inquiry that the budget for British troops had risen above the rate of inflation every year for the last decade. Mr Brown later repeated the claim in the Commons. He was wrong and had to admit that figures increased only in cash terms. An even bigger criticism is that no proper war budget was set.

The problem over getting the sums correct seem to be a Labour issue as only last week, Mr Johnson, Ed Miliband's shadow chancellor said the VAT increase will make an impact on food prices but that tax is not even levied on the majority of food stuffs. What stupid error to make!

On Sky he stated that National Insurance was 20% where as it is actually 12.8%!

Johnson whilst on Sky News calling for the employer contribution of NI to be increased from 20 to 21 per cent as he did not know what the correct rate was!

He had to be corrected by the interviewer that it is in fact 12.8 per cent.

Ed Miliband is the leader of a failed labour party having brought the economy of the UK to the worst recession in living memory to have them involved in the future economy would be like asking the Captain of the Titanic to organise the life boats.

To sum up I have to ask Is Ed Miliband a leader of Today? No it is clear that he is very much yesterday's man.


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The author writes a great many articles on politics and for more information please go to Ed Miliband Today