Ed Miliband Wins Labour Leadership Race

The Labour Party, which was crushed earlier this year in Britain's general election, has selected a new leader to head up Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband defeated four other candidates, including his older brother David. This may mark the end of the New Labour experiment; Mr. Miliband's nickname is "Red Ed." However, the closeness of the race suggests that Labour will have to spend a few years figuring out what its platform truly is.

The Labour Party's electoral process cannot be described as straightforward. Labour Members of Parliament get a vote, as do the trade unions, and dues paying party activists. Then, they use preferences to move votes from the candidates who finish out of the running to redistribute those votes. Mr. Miliband topped the 50% mark to secure the leadership in the fourth round, after the votes of failed candidates Diane Abbott, Andy Burnham and Ed Balls were reapportioned. The final result was 50.65% for Mr. E. Miliband to 49.35% for Mr. D. Miliband.

When presented to the Labour Party Conference as the new party leader, Mr. E. Miliband said, "The Labour Party in the future must be a vehicle that doesn't just attract thousands of young people but tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of young people who see us as their voice in British politics today." He added, "We lost the election and we lost it badly. My message to the country is this: I know we lost trust, I know we lost touch, I know we need to change. Today a new generation has taken charge of Labour, a new generation that understands the call to change."

The challenge now for the new leader is to find a set of ideas that are consistent with Labour values (new or old) that undermines the Lib-Con Coalition. One is dubious of his ability (or any Labour leader's ability) to achieve this. The mess in which Britain finds itself was largely caused by Labour misgovernment. New policies are needed, but Labour has none. It has inchoate ideas based on traditional Labour values of protecting the working class. However, Britain's demography has changed; the Labour voting working class is down to 25% of the population. The votes just aren't there. The opportunity to win back support from those who voted Liberal Democrat is there, but the new policies have to be created and sold.

The LibDems are the party of fairness, and the Tories the party of aspiration (clothes Tony Blair wanted to steal for New Labour). Mr. Miliband needs to answer the question "Labour is the party of what?" The working class? Jobs? The North of Britain? Constitutional reform?

There is one immediate wedge -- the referendum this May on electoral reform. The LibDems demanded this as the price of coalition with the Conservatives, who will campaign against it. Labour must, ideally at this conference, come out in favor of the change. While it will ensure more coalition governments, it will also claw the core of the LibDems back away from the Tories. If the referendum passes, Labour wins. If it fails, the LibDems lose a major part of their raison d'etre, and Labour can probably pick up their disaffected.

This journal, as a friend of Britain, wishes Mr. Miliband well, and hopes that Labour can quickly become an effective opposition. The job needs doing, and it needs doing soon.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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