Milliband: 'Lib Dems betrayed fairness but Conservatives are the main enemy'
Labour leadership favourite David Miliband has warned against the party aiming its fire at the Liberal Democrats in the Westcountry, amid fears the tactic will back fire.
Mr Miliband told the Western Morning News that the Tories are the "main enemy", signalling a softening of attacks against the Lib Dems for betraying values of fairness.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary said that the Conservatives tended to "come out stronger" after coalitions part company. His comments echo the fears of senior Labour figures in the Westcountry, who reckon all-out attacks on the Lib Dems serve only to "let the Tories in by the back door".
Mr Miliband said: "I think it is very important that we remember our major enemy is the Tories. The history of coalitions between Tories and Lib Dems is that the Tories come out stronger. Of course, the Tories want us to spend all of our time on Lib Dem voters – and are quite happy Labour and the Lib Dems are having a ding-dong."
He went on: "We have to break out of the mould the Tories want to put us in – profligate, instead of prudent; stateist and not community-based. And the Tory party want to establish us, ironically, as the establishment and not the party of change."
Labour trails a distant third in almost every seat in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.
Of the 25 seats contested in the three counties on May 6, Labour won two and came third in all but one of the other constituencies, behind the Tories and Lib Dems. Many in the party are concerned that targeting the Lib Dems will simply hand victory to their coalition partners, the Conservatives, next time around.
Luke Pollard, former Labour candidate for the South West Devon seat, has written that Labour has a "difficult balance to strike" in the region. "In many Tory/Lib Dem battleground seats, frankly, we can do little to influence the final outcome," he wrote on a Labour blog.
He said it was right to seize on Lib Dem approval of the Budget, and in particular the rise in VAT that hits the poorest hardest. But the party had to be "mindful that for many years the Liberal Democrats were the only party stopping the Tories sweeping the Westcountry".
He said: "This is important because an outright Tory majority might well be aided by gains west of Bristol."
Mr Miliband is favourite to beat his brother Ed, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott in the Labour leadership race.
As ballots are to be sent to all party members next week, he also took a swipe at the threat the coalition poses to the South West economy. He said scrapping the regional development agency, abolishing regional house-building targets and slashing housing benefit was "toxic for business" and represented an "attack on business". He said: "The economic recovery is fragile and because of the savagery of the cuts, projected economic growth is down, business and consumer confidence is down, and the recovery that Labour delivered is under major threat."
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by max power, st austell
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 10:23PM
“...and yes, I know who was P.M. in 1994, it was also the year non Fabian John Smith ( and with him 'old Labour') died.”
by max power, st austell
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 10:08PM
“John
Apologies, I often work late.
Many thanks for that. I consider some of my posts politically naive, thinking with the heart and not the head. I don't consider it's a fault, just that it's often impractical. It would be nice to produce a more eloquent and readable contributions like yours, I'll keep practising.
The foremost defining moment that fuels my cynicism was Rwanda. I can remember the news bulletins with film of the slaughter and wondered why nothing was being done. This was exactly what the U.N. was about wasn't it?
And the genocide could so easily have been stopped by jamming the radio signal, perhaps replacing it with another message.
But worse than inaction by the UN whose troops were reporting the horrific slaughter was the French collusion with the murderers.
So when Blair tells us it's politically justifiable to remove certain ''tyrants'' for human rights abuses, please excuse my political naivety for thinking he's a hypocrite and a liar.
Respects Max”
by Charles, Somersetshire
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 9:30PM
“:| PS. I neglected to say thankyou John. . I feel I should. . Your various 'mixed' comments were noted.”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 8:22PM
“:| I suppose if we'd just let Hitler finish them all off, and if the Japanese had given the USA a fatal blow at Pearl Harbour, we wouldn't have so many Middle East problems now. . Except of course, we might not all be here either.
Guantanamo Bay detention camp was a holiday camp by comparison
I haven't really got much else to say. . Catch you all again. . Best Charles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWwl-lr9wNc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps64xxJq0mg&feature=related
.”
by TimV, Pz
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 2:35PM
“It is a well known saying that "The truth is the first casualty of war". Indeed we were given proof that it was a casualty well before the Iraq War began - arguably the worst deceit ever perpetrated on the British nation. It has been clear for a long time that the intent to remove Saddam Hussein by military force, was taken years before the event, and that principally the American and British Governments conspired to provide the justification, irrespective of the facts known to them. The truth can be a casualty in peace as well as war and all the protections embedded in the law, public opinion, free press and democratic institutions were unequal to the determined intentions of the main players. (The attempt to bully the BBC, which was largely successful, was just one blatant example) In so doing, the view that only non-democratic regimes undertake aggressive acts against sovereign states, and that "freedom loving" democracies only use force defensively, was decisively shown to be fable. "History is always written by the victor" is another famous aphorism that is already in evidence. The enormous suffering is swept under a Persian carpet of positive propaganda. If nothing else, the Iraq adventure was a wake-up call. Even Western Governments cannot be trusted with the truth as global geo-politics in the control of vital natural resources, are played out.”