IN THE middle of the greatest ever capitalist crisis, Labour leader Miliband, while the ruling class is attacking and robbing the working class and the middle class, has appealed for ‘fairness’ but has managed to equate billionaire bankers with oppressed people on social security.
He also refused to support returning to a £3,000 fee cap for university students.
His speech amounted to trying to disguise his political bankruptcy with fair words.
His alternative to the capitalist crisis was to reject socialism and pledge: ‘I am determined to prove to you that the next Labour Government will only spend what it can afford.
‘That we will live within our means.’
He continued to admit that the difference between his government and a Tory government would be wafer thin.
He said: ‘We won’t be able to reverse many of the cuts this government is making.’
He went on to pledge that ‘if this Government fails to deal with the deficit in this Parliament, we are determined to do so.’
He continued: ‘You know, I’m not Tony Blair. I’m not Gordon Brown either. Great men, who in their different ways, achieved great things. I’m my own man. And I’m going to do things my own way.’
This amounted to: ‘My top demand of my Shadow Cabinet, my party, my team, is this: Ambition to change our country.’
This involved acknowledgement that: ‘Some of what happened in the 1980s was right.
‘It was right to let people buy their council houses.
‘It was right to cut tax rates of 60, 70, 80 per cent.
‘And it was right to change the rules on the closed shop, on strikes before ballots.’
The message was thank God for Mrs Thatcher and down with the miners.
He proceeded to state that what was wrong with Thatcher, Blair and Brown put right, saying: ‘while some of it was right, too much of what happened was based on the wrong values.
‘That’s where New Labour came in.’
The problem was that: ‘We changed the fabric of our country but we did not do enough to change the values of our economy.’
He proceeded to condemn an ‘immigration policy which didn’t work for the people whose jobs, living standards and communities were affected.’
He added: ‘Big vested interests like the energy companies have gone unchallenged, while you’re being ripped off.’
He, however, did not pledge renationalisation.
He contrasted the bad capitalist – Fred Goodwin who ‘was at the heart of the banking crisis’ – to the good capitalist ‘Sir John Rose, former Chief Executive of Rolls Royce, a great British business leader.’
He called for ‘reward linked to effort’, bracketing banking speculators with the unemployed on social security.
He said: ‘We must never excuse people who cheat the welfare system.’
He, however, did not call for the nationalisation of the banks to put an end to the banking scandals.
He added: ‘Let me tell you what the 21st century choice is: Are you on the side of the wealth creators or the asset strippers? The producers or the predators?
‘Supporting the producers, that is what it means to be pro-business today.
‘That is why I say all major government contracts will go to firms who commit to training the next generation with decent apprenticeships, people with the right values.’
He condemned: ‘Where benefits are too easy to come by for those who don’t deserve them and too low for those who do.
‘So if what you want is a welfare system that works for working people then I’m prepared to take the tough decisions to make that a reality.’
It’s Miliband the Thatcherite.
‘Take social housing.
‘When we have a housing shortage, choices have to be made.
‘Do we treat the person who contributes to their community the same as the person who doesn’t?
‘My answer is no.’
He embraces Tory values and while refusing to nationalise the banks, divides the poor into ‘deserving’ who must be helped and ‘sturdy rogues’ who must be punished, with bourgeois society being the judge.
His speech was in the Blair-Brown-Thatcher mould.
