Ed Miliband

11.02.2014 UK Politics

What shock will finally break the cosy Westminster consensus?

A friend on Facebook pointed me towards an article in GQ about the Wythenshawe & Sale East byelection. I’m not a regular GQ reader, but the headline – Running On Anger: on the campaign trail with UKIP – and the content

31.01.2014 Technology

Sorry, I actually don’t want a “digital firepower onslaught”. I’d prefer better politics.

I have not been developing websites for politicians for a while now, preferring instead to do consultancy and training work for a variety of different political and governmental actors. The problem was essentially that you can bring a politician to

08.03.2013 UK Politics

How a Labour victory in 2015 makes the UK leaving the EU more likely

Two separate conversations in Brussels this week, both with Brits, but with people of very different political persuasions, led me to the odd conclusion summed up by the title of this blog entry – Britain leaving the EU is more

27.01.2013 EU Politics

Why Labour’s critique of migration within the EU must stop

While the columns in newspapers criticising Cameron’s referendum commitment continue to be written, I nevertheless have a nagging fear – that while Cameron’s strategy may be ill-advised, the main pro-EU party in the UK, Labour, has nothing really to say

18.11.2012 EU Politics

No-one’s going to believe Labour is “hard-headed” about the EU, and it’s wrong anyway

So Labour has another stab at getting together some sort of EU policy. Ed Miliband is interviewed in The Sunday Telegraph and the only thing that seems to emerge is that Labour needs a “hard-headed” approach to the European Union,

01.10.2012 UK Politics

Labour might win, but British politics will not

At one level all looks fine for Labour and Ed Miliband as the party kicks off conference in Manchester this week. The party is 10 points ahead in the polls, is facing an unpopular and weak government. Roll on 2015.

22.06.2012 EU Politics / UK Politics

A small footnote about Miliband, the EU and immigration

So Ed Miliband today weighs into the UK debate on immigration. Others are better placed to express the overall problems with this. I am instead going to focus on one small aspect of Miliband’s comments, namely this point at the

13.05.2012 UK Politics

Labour, Ed Miliband, Progress and promises

I was at the Progress Conference yesterday and heard the Ed Miliband speech that’s the centre piece of Andrew Rawnsley’s Observer column today. It was the best speech I’ve heard Ed give and he responded in the Q&A session with determination

07.12.2011 EU Politics / UK Politics

Take, take, take, and a scant grasp of the facts – this week’s UK-EU hulabaloo

Anyone would think – from reading the stories today on The Guardian’s website – that the UK is shaping up for some major fight with the European Union over treaty reform prior to this week’s summit. There are two problems

27.03.2011 UK Politics

Two speeches in Hyde Park – Brendan Barber vs. Ed Miliband

At the rally in Hyde Park yesterday after the March for the alternative, the first two speeches were given by Brendan Barber and Ed Miliband. I’ve used the text of the respective speeches (Barber’s here, Miliband’s here) to generate two

14.03.2011 UK Politics

Cutting VAT on fuel – sending the wrong signals

Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are announcing some preliminary Labour economic policies today, and one of the headlines is a reduction in VAT on petrol, from 20% back to the 17.5% level it was set at prior to January this

03.11.2010 EU Politics / Technology / UK Politics

How a little Norwegian school results map could give Ed Miliband some ideas

The idea is simple, the map is stylish and easy to read, and the code is open source – welcome to skoleporten, the interactive map of Norwegian school results for junior schools (5th grade) and secondary schools (8th grade), produced