Miliband Has Another Crazy Idea!
After his idea of freezing energy prices, which I think, anybody with any knowledge of how the energy markets work, will think is a non-starter, he’s now had another idea, which although on the face of it looks good, will have far reaching negative consequences if it is implemented. It’s all reported here on the BBC and it is well summed up by the first paragraphs.
Firms would not be able to undercut wages by paying agency staff less than permanent staff under a Labour government, Ed Miliband has said.
Writing in the Independent on Sunday, the Labour leader said the party would close a loophole in the law that allowed for differing rates of pay.
Mr Miliband said he wanted to tighten the rules to “stop a race to the bottom with workers coming here from abroad”.
If you take an industry like farming, which relies heavily on bringing in agency workers to harvest fruit and vegetables, the resulting increase in price of the food, would probably mean we’d import more food from places like Kenya. Farmers would probably only grow food that could be harvested totally by machine.
Other industries would probably be similarly affected and their costs would go up, meaning more higher prices for consumers.
One point that he seems to ignore, is what happens in a company if agency workers and permanent staff are paid the same. A company would adjust the workforce to have the best one to meet its needs. So permanent staff might come under other pressures to perform as well as agency staff, be they from the UK or abroad.
It’ll be interesting to see how this argument develops. I’d love to see a breakdown of where these agency workers are employed by industry and region. I suspect that we’ll find some important public services wouldn’t run without them.
You can’t bring in these sort of policies immediately. You have to phase them in gradually over a period of time. It’s like trying to ride a bicycle slowly, by only turning hard left and hard right, instead of by small movements on the handlebars.
My only worry about these unworkable pronouncements from Ed Miliband, is that enough people might believe him and vote for him in 2010. His deputy may be called Balls, but Miliband talks it in spades!
Hollande Shows How To Ru(i)n Football
The top French football clubs, are showing what they think of President Hollande’s high earner tax, by going on strike, as is reported here on the BBC. Here’s the first paragraph.
French President Francois Hollande has rebuffed protests against a 75% tax on high earners, prompting football clubs to press on with a planned “strike”.
Mr Hollande stood firm by his plan to levy the tax on incomes above 1m euros (£850,000; $1.36m) at a meeting with club presidents.
Ed Milliband admitted in this interview to being a lapsed Leeds United supporter and now follows Doncaster, so expect him to raise taxes like Hollande if he gets elected, as it won’t effect any of his teams. It might even raise Doncaster into the Premier League!
Ed Milliband and the Daily Mail
We all have skeletons in our families. Mine is my uncle, who was one for the ladies and was always in trouble. During the Second World War, he actually had a bigamous marriage, from which there were children.
My father’s political leanings were very much Tory, but to the left of the party. He would probably have views like Kenneth Clarke today. But my father was a passionate anti-fascist, probably because of his partly Jewish ancestry. He was also one of the most non-racist men I have met of his generation. I can’t remember too well, but I don’t think he liked dictators and as he had names for them all in his Cockney poetry.
A couple of weeks ago, I met a man of my age, who said that his father was a died in the wool communist, who never condemned Stalin till the day he died. He joked about it, but I suspect that was because he was rather embarrassed by his father supporting Stalin. Alexei Sayle joked about his parents hard-line communism on The One Show last night.
I would suspect that the Milliband brothers, are in some ways embarrassed by some of the views of their father. Most of us have a similar view about our own father, although, I don’t think I ever heard mine, pontificate on anything controversial in a way, that we would find politically incorrect. Some of my mother’s views were not so acceptable?
All politicians live in glass houses, with everything they do, don’t do or have done under the greatest scrutiny. And all of their ancestors come under close scrutiny.
Just as the political views of Denis Thatcher, Alfred Roberts, Tony Booth and other related to previous Prime Ministers, have been important to the Press and the scandal-loving British public, Ralph Milliband‘s political views would come under scrutiny from a paper like the Mail, the Express or the Sun. Especially, as some on the left have hard left views very unacceptable to those in the Labour Party, who want to bring it into the twenty-first century.
So in my view the Milliband brothers should have clean about the more unacceptable views of their father years ago, and perhaps joked about it in a more sympathetic medium, as Alexei Sayle and others have done. I don’t have this problem with my father, but anyway, I’m not a politician and my father wasn’t either, so it’s not important.
Now that the Daily Mail has attacked Ed Milliband for his father’s views, the story is out in the open. The Mail’s behaviour since has been unacceptable, but Ed Milliband’s keeping it going is in many ways making it worse. I haven’t seen any comments from his brother. But then David’s in the United States, where communist connections bring a different reaction.
After all, everybody in the country now knows the full story of Ralph Milliband and it will play a large part in the next General Election. Those to the right will play the Reds under the bed card and those on the hard left will play their Class War one.
In my view though, Ed Milliband has shown a lack of judgement in how he handled his father’s views. Compare it with the way Tony Blair handled those of his father.
Today there is this report on the BBC entitled Ed Miliband urges Daily Mail owner to examine ‘culture’.
It’s not the culture of the Press that needs examining, it’s the culture of the country, where most people seem to value celebrity tittle-tattle well above real issues. Just look at the sales of celebrity magazines!
Ed Milliband is now on BBC Breakfast going on about it again.
Does he not know, when it is time to stop fanning the flames of an out-of-control fire?
Labour Promises To Turn The Lights Out
Ed Milliban’s promise yesterday on energy prices is the sort of vote-grabbing bribe. that is typical of third-rate politicians. Judging by the response from the energy companies, If Red Ed gets power we’ll all be in for a hard time. It’s all here on the BBC. Even Britain’s worst Prime Minister of recent years; Gordon Brown, wouldn’t have issued such a cheap promise.
I think that this pledge could have serious effects.
Suppose you were in charge of planning at a large energy company. Would you be prepared to invest in an expensive new power station in the UK, until after the election of 2015?, I suspect that other countries with more certain energy policies and prices, would be a better place for the investment!
So the lights might go out, even if Labour doesn’t win the election!
I’ve just listened to the start of the phone-in on Radio 5.
They’ve started appealing for anyone in favour of Red Ed’s idea.
The Two Faces Of Ed Milliband
Ed Milliband has just stated on BBC Television, that whatever we do in Syria must be totally legal.
So where was he, when Blair decided to go into Iraq as Bush’s poodle? Answers on a properly creosoted fence please!
Sibling Confusion
I don’t know much history or details about politicians’ families!
But I seem to think, that Ed Milliband is one of the few party leaders, who has had a brother or sister, actively involved in politics in recent years. I have always confused the two Millibands and I just wonder if this is a serious disadvantage to both of them, as I can’t be the only person to do this. The only other high profile pair of political siblings is Boris Johnson and his brother. Would this harm their chances of leading the Tory party?
Miliband Gets The Digger Out
In East London, there is TUCA, which I call London’s University of Hole Digging.
Judging my Ed Miliband’s pronouncement in the last few minutes on his party’s relationship with the Trade Unions, he has certainly done the first part of the course at that University.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have done part two, where you learn how to get out of hole, you’ve just dug!
If Ed Miliband Can’t Run The Labour Party, How Could He Run The Country?
After reading stories like this one about candidate selection in Falkirk, the question in the title of this post has to be asked.
Especually after he has had to call in the Police, to sort the mess out.
Ed Miliband Says He’ll Switch The Lights Off
Well not directly, but he has just said on BBC Breakfast, that he will break the link between power generation and distribution and bring in a tough new regulator to force prices down, when wholesale prices come down.
It’s all motherhood and apple pie, and might appeal to voters, but it would have the effect of stopping major power companies investing in the generating capacity we need.
So the lights will inevitably go out!
The only way to avoid building generating capacity is to find ways to insulate our poor housing stock and force consumers to actually do it!
But then the British public is addicted to using as much energy as possible.
Politicians And Conservative Thinking
This article about Ed Miliband and his tax policies, shows everything that is wrong with politicians. Obviously, the 10p tax rate brought in by Gordon Brown didn’t work, as why would he later have abolished it. Politicians of all parties just can’t get it into their head, that when old ideas fail, it is time to give up conservative thinking and try new ideas.
You could argue, that a Mansion Tax is a good idea, but it is just another variation of the politics of envy.
I feel it would make housing problems worse, as from what I’ve read, it would be better for tax purposes to own six £700,000 houses, rather than one worth £4,000,000 or so.
Thus, those with pots of money would take houses out of the available pool, which let’s face it is too small at all levels.
I wouldn’t be hit by a Mansion Tax, as my house is probably worth just over a million, although I paid a lot less for it, just two years ago. But it is in an area, where prices are rising quite fast, due to the improvements in public transport. In a few years, it’ll probably be within the Mansion Tax rate. So why should I pay more, just because I made a good decision?
I would raise money from housing in other ways. The Mansion Tax would be paid on any property, where the owner doesn’t live in it. And the starting point would be a £1,000,000.
This would mean second houses would pay the Mansion Tax, as you couldn’t be registered in two places. I’ve lived in two houses at the same time in the past and it’s a pain and very inefficient.
So let’s ditch all of the consevative ideas and get really radical with ideas, that create more houses and generate more jobs and wealth.
The Anonymous Widower 