This weekend’s news has been dominated by the aftermath of yesterday’s ‘Alternative to Cuts’ protest. The right argued that Miliband had no alternative plan to the cuts, he agrees that cuts are necessary it’s the way in which the government has tried to reduce the deficit which is the problem.
Ed Miliband
Miliband took on a risk placing himself at the forefront of an honourable national peaceful movement driven by the unions.
The ensuing riots were not part of this peaceful protest but part of an anarchist group which has no place in these demonstrations and must be condemned.
The strength of feeling was evident not least in the fact that people joined the march from all corners of the country.
Andrew Rawnsley sums up well the risk Miliband took involving himself in the cuts, you can read it here.
Yesterday I watched in horror news of a woman being whisked away and literally gagged by Gaddafi’s henchmen as she attempted to tell reporters that women in Tripoli were being tortured and raped by Gaddafi loyalists. It is a harrowing piece of footage to watch, and I don’t say this lightly, but I urge readers to watch it to see the true horror of this conflict. You cans ee it at the end of this article.
I took part in today’s Sunday Times web chat. I really enjoyed the hour’s debate and people seemed genuinely interested to learn more about the role of an MEP, there was genuine curiosity. I will post the transcript of the web chat tomorrow here on my blog.
Whether as part of a demonstration or not, Ed Milliband’s comments are difficult to accept.
Of course the Tories are cutting the wrong things but with a National Debt of £4.8 trillion, cuts must be made and he will not tell us what should be cut.
There was an interesting little piece in today’s Evening Standard about this. It was an account of an interview with Evan Davis and Ed Milliband. Apparently, after a struggle Mr Davis finally got him to admit that there was only £80 billion difference in the cuts planned by Labour and the present cuts being made by the Coalition.
All this Labour fuss about such a small amount! Our membership fee for the EU is £6.7 billion. If we opted for UK Home Rule the budget deficit would be significantly reduced by not having to pay the membership fee and there would be even greater savings from the end of EU regulations. Former EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson reckons that the regulations cost us 4% of GDP.