Labour’s focus-lacking evangelism
Earlier today I attended a Q and A session for David Miliband at Staffordshire University. It was advertised by Miliband on entrance that the reason for his visit was to promote people to vote Labour in the local council elections. Just to begin this “review” of the session, I don’t see the relevance to have an MP who used to be in the Shadow Cabinet leading a Q and A session in the midst of local council elections. Miliband’s knowledge lies in foreign affairs, not domestic. Miliband spend a year as the Minister of State for Communities and Local Government from May 2005 – May 2006, he’s not who I would consider someone who should be campaigning across the country for people to be voting Labour in the upcoming elections, but instead Caroline Flint, who is infact the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
The only reason I can observe for David Miliband campaigning for Labour in the local council elections is simply because his face has been in the media in recent months. Maybe this is the life for David with his brother leading the Labour Party – David is given little odds and ends so he can gain publicity even if they aren’t relevant to him post (Or lack of one, as David stodd down from the Shadow Cabinet and now just holds the seat for South Shields).
I don’t want to sound to harsh, but even though only a narrow win, I’m pleased for the Labour Party that Ed Miliband won in the Labour Leadership Election of 2010. Why? Because David Miliband’s orating skills are negligible. I was willing to put this aside when he first began talking to the audience, but as time progressed there was little improvement, he slurred his words, mumbled and got lost in his sentences frequently.
The supposed reason for his attendance was to speak about the local council elections, though I don’t recall him bringing this up at all. He made a point to nervously denounce the conservative “break-up of the NHS”, their “Wrong choices” and their ethos of “Private good, public bad”, yet made no point regarding the local council elections.
The questions he were given were largely based on the greater context to his introductory speech (so again, not local council elections), yet he could not answer many. Miliband may have travelled all the way to Stoke-on-Trent, but he clearly wasn’t ready for the questions, nor fit for purpose.
Following Miliband’s poor answers, Labour Councillor Bagh Ali stood, and in abstract told people to lead a smear campaign against the Lib Dems and Conservatives, because it’s only Labour which want to increase the amount of jobs in Stoke-on-Trent.
I for one did not buy anything that was said to me, not to say that it was a worthless experience, becuase I havce been able to write this post about how David Miliband is scouting the midlands like a Labour evangelist (I say this because Labour have recently chose to prey on on groups who they think will be more impressionable to Labour ethos – students and members of trade unions), spreading his word – but exceptionally poorly. To finalise this post, I do feel a little sorry for David, he should have not been put in the position to talk about whatever issues were raised without prior knowledge of the questions asked, and because he failed to set an agenda in his introductory speech about where he wanted the questions to lead.
Labour (and my Students’ Union who I’m guessing helped plan this event) may be under the delusion that all students are left-leaning; but I’m here to show that we’re not all the same, some of us know what’s better for our country.
