Why should the sepulchral tone of Ed Miliband’s voice offend me so? Fill me with dread that creates a shiver the length of my spine?
I should be impervious to personal characteristics; ignoring the style of dress or hair that are merely personal choice; the vestiges of another culture inherent in a strong accent – and generally I am. I don’t draw conclusions on policy from Theresa May’s selection of shoes; or Tom Watson’s ratio of body fat to healthy muscle - yet let me hear just half a dozen syllables from the Miliband verbal orifice, as instantly recognisable as John Wayne’s, and my prejudice tumbles out pre-formed.
I never want to see a government presided over by that man!
I don’t hear the policy announcement; I hear the whining tone of the school bully, unexpectedly finding himself on the other end of retribution, full of self entitlement, bloated with indignation. I hear the nasal twang of ‘Malcolm’ in the Vick advertisements - the self pity of the man with ‘man flu’. I hear the child in the back seat – ‘are we nearly there yet?’ – that total absence of appreciation of the realities of the grown up world of Bank Holiday traffic jams.
“S’not fair” it calls to me.
A voice should not affect me so; though Margaret Thatcher had to lose the Hyacinth Bucket timbre of middle class Grantham before Arthur Scargill imploded - perhaps I am not alone in my reaction to a voice. I had a Mynah Bird called Arthur Scargill once, who had grown up in a Gay pub in Vauxhall and amused me no end with his Kenneth William’s camp voice lisping ‘You’re a big boy, you’re very naice’ – he fell off his perch, downed by laryngitis eventually…I digress, as usual, but filled with hope.
It’s the voice of the ‘Supergrass’, the man who has grown fat on the proceeds of just that which he would now deny others; the man who would seek the protection of being on what he perceives as the winning side, now that it suits his purposes. The Changeling, the Quisling. The voice of Lord Haw-Haw.
It is a voice of aspiration, to be sure, but aspiration merely for what others already have. The childish pleading that says ‘all my friends have got one’. Would we ever see aspiration for the pursuit of excellence with such a mentality in charge? Would Thomas Chippendale rise from a poverty stricken background by dint of his pursuit of excellence for its own sake, or would he be bemoaning the lack of jobs for coffin makers in Otley and demanding that the gentry of London increase his benefits?
There was another of the Daily Mail’s ‘whohoo the foreigners are coming’ piece on Friday:
Under a loophole in EU immigration rules, Big Issue sellers can claim ‘self-employed status’, thereby gaining a National Insurance number and, with it, an instant legal foothold in the British labour market.
Last year, it emerged that an astonishing one in three of all of the title’s street sellers in Britain comes from Romania. Most of them — like Iordan — also hail from the country’s Roma gypsy community.
‘My uncle says you make £40-£45 each day selling the magazine,’ he explains, speaking through a translator. ‘Here in Romania, I sometimes don’t make that in a week. That’s why many people like me are putting their hope in your country.’
Iordan, 35, will be treading a well-worn path. So far, 15 of his cousins have gone to the UK, joining around 100,000 of their countrymen. They, too, supported themselves by hawking The Big Issue, but have mostly graduated to higher-paying jobs.
‘Once you are set up in London, they say there is plenty of work,’ he says. ‘I’ll soon find something in construction, or at car washes; wherever the money is best.’
Where was Miliband’s response to the news that there were jobs aplenty at £40-£50 a day – and more – in London? That people who barely speak english can travel halfway across Europe in the rush to take them up? His answer to the poor of Britain was a Mansion Tax, take from those who have to give to those who haven’t; and a 10p tax break – tax break? The Government have already raised tax free allowances, essentially a zero tax rate – by several thousand pounds!
That, I realised finally was my objection to his voice. It is not that I dislike it intrinsically, it is that it has come to represent a ‘one nation Britain’ that involves bringing those who make no effort up to what is left of the level of those who have strived – and leaves no room for the pursuit of excellence or altruism. It is a dour Marxism, that would have been the death knell for Miliband senior, an immigrant himself, who prospered under a very different Britain.
It is the authentic voice of Hypocrisy. The voice of Gordon Brown. Devoid of substance, determined to suppress initiative; pandering only to the willful child.
It makes me cringe.
Ms Raccoon lives in the Monbazillac area of South West France, renowned for its fine wines and gourmet food, so she frequently finds better things to do than sit in front of a computer all morning. She is liable to take off traveling at a moment's notice. Consequently this blog only gets updated these days when it is raining - and it doesn't rain very often round here...
{ 46 comments }
I hope Deadhead Ed never has the misfortune to meet me. Like his colleague Ed Bollocks, he had one of those faces you want to punch. Repeatedly.
I have to concur, indeed it is not the desire to start punching Ed “I impregnated Marr’s mistress” Bollocks, but the inability to stop.
I do understand the feeling, but surely Brian Cox has got the archetypical ‘punchable face’?
I don’t remember Brian Cox raising my taxes.
Brian Cox is from Dundee and looks as if he’s had his face punched in more than once, and he’d still kick your arse….
http://www.portroids.com/Y8/Brian%20Cox.jpg
I don’t see a ‘reply’ to Moor Larkin’s comment below so I’ll use this one.
I have no idea who the picture you show is. I know there is another Brian Cox who is an actor, so perhaps it is he. I was talking about every left-winger’s favourite ‘talking head’ professor. You know, Tony Blair’s favourite Mancunian, Radio 4′s favourite physicist.
Or perhaps you are an arts graduate so can’t be expected to know.
Punching Prof Brian Cox would surely be tantamount to child abuse.
Never again shall Miliband appear on the box that I shall not think ‘Man Flu’—too memorable and apt a phrase to even bother in future to with the surmame Miliband, This is much more the clever banter and atmosphere I expect in the Racoon Arms than yesterday.
Love it! Gay Mynah bird!
One of the anthems of many politicians, but partricularly the left, is that politics is not about personalities, it is about policies. That is a best a total misunderstanding of the nature of politics, and the world, and at worst a lie, designed to prevent rational thought. Policy and personality are intrinsically linked, because we (or most of us) are human beings, not simply machines that work by the principles of Newtonian science. The essence of Thatcher was her nature as Thatcher, for example; that informed her approach to problems and policies. The essence of Gordon Brown was not not a theorem in a book, but a paranoid aggrandising lunatic.
Any politician in a Greek City State or the Roman Forum would have understood this.
It is therefore both inevitable and rational to form and take into account whether one “likes” or “trusts” or “has faith in” as a person.
My personal view is that Ed should not be allowed to run a toy train set, let alone a country, but then that’s just me. In fact, I cant think of many politicians that i would like or trust at all. One might be Frank Field MP, a man of the left but a man prepared to say harsh truths, and much hated by the spin doctor’s of New Labour. It may say something about me or them, but I can’t think of another politician I would say I would particulrly trust, or like. And that goes for jovial, bonkers (meaning well branded, ambitious and philandering) Boris.
We are currently being fed the line that there is unlikely to be an influx of Romanians. Just as we were informed that there would be no ingress of Poles.
Not quite so sure, despite his pathetic period in office as Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith seems to have a genuine understanding of the welfare from the perspective of both the needs of the recipients and the limits of the chequebook of the state. Whether this is sufficient is debatable, but a politician who has been near the top, bares the scars and is still committed to tackling the hard issues seems to me the ‘least worst’ sort.
Maybe there is some characteristic common to those who are genuinely intent on reforming the welfare trap.
Ineresting John, beacuse IDS did actually flicker across my consciousness as a decent man trying to get to grips wih an intractable problem. I am sure there are a few more, but precious few, methinks.
I have been away from the UK for many years, so not really up to date on all the details, but it does seem strange to me that so many Rumanians wish to move to the UK and so few Brits in the other direction, so one must assume that there is a financial gain to be had by moving to the UK. This may be in terms of available work for higher pay than available in Rumania, in which case you might see a lot of single arrivals who work and send money back home to the family, but may also be influenced by government benefits such as housing and health care for families. If that is the case, it seems that some parts of the EU treaty are probably deficient.
In the US any person may move from any state to establish residence in any other state, or, I think in Puerto Rico, but it doesn’t seem that many people want to take advantage of this, otherwise I imagine we would see a vast influx of unemployed workers from Florida or Nevada moving to Hawaii or Alaska, but we don’t. I am sure this is because it is not economically beneficial for unemployed workers to make these moves.
Here in the Dominican Republic there are many Haitian migrant workers, many of whom are illegal. They don’t get any kind of government benefits, and work mostly in agriculture, construction, and prostitution. Agriculture and construction may pay as little as $2.50 per day, while prostitution may pay from $20 to $60 per hour when contract work is available, however available hours are very limited. There is no subsidized housing for Haitians, however some may shack up with or marry Dominicans.
I believe free vaccinations are available for Haitian children.
Wasn’t Trujillo’s mother a Haitian immigrant?
It is about both politics and personality. I have to say though, the election of Ed Miliband underlined the wisdom and righteousness of my decision to leave Labour and join the Conservatives. What a poor excuse for the leader of one of Britain’s largest parties – and what a paltry field he was selected from! I cannot help but look at them and reflect on the decade of Tony and Gordon – what a wasted opportunity.
Play the man and not the ball, Mr Gildas ? Exactly. Miliband is a pathetic whining entitlement drone clerk, whose first ‘job ‘ was carrying Harriet Harmans handbag and the hopless squirt was overpromoted then; one of Browns ‘ young men’ on an MP`s meal ticket; out of his depth in the Gobi Desert: when faced with the actual prospect of power he`ll soil himself and puke with terror and plead ‘ he didn`t mean to ‘.
Duncan Smith. A failure until he discovered the best welfare scheme for unemployables, becoming an MP. A quarter century of parasitism, his ‘ career ‘ has been distinguished only by letting Jug Ears off the hook over Iraq and whining piteously for his meal ticket : ‘ turning up the volume ‘. Both these careerist teat hanging chair polishers should be fucked off down the job centre: their state handouts ( their damned salaries) ended and be forced to stack shelves; on the min, no suit, no office, exculpating their miserable existences by doing a proper job.
ooooomph!
Sir – your attack on IDS is harsh. He was no great shakes as party leader, true enough; since then, he has invested time in studying the welfare system, including by doing what few politicians are willing to do, namely, talk to those at the receiving end. He deserves respect for tackling a very difficult, but very pressing, problem in trying to make the welfare system workable and fair to both recipients and taxpayers. This task is something that career politicians for at least two decades have run screaming from, seeing only a career graveyard and personal unpopularity. That IDS is prepared to risk both in order to try to make the system better is very much to his credit.
Mr Engineer, IDS would be best off studying the welfare system by joining it, although he already has, by being an MP. He was already in a career graveyard and personally unpopular, especially with his colleagues who replaced him with Micheal Howard. IDS has nothing to risk, the state will, as it has been doing for quarter of a century, wipe his backside. His earnest preachiness, very Miliband; in the unlikely event of the Boy Blunder reaching Downing Street the buffoon IDS may well become an adviser, banging a reformist, modernising tamborine with Jug Ears Blair; although he comes a damn sight more expensive.
May I respectfully suggest that as you consider all our current politicians to be such craven fools, you get yourself elected to Parliament and show them how it should be done?
Seen elsewhere, made me laugh. – “I can’t understand a word that comes out of his nose”.
Ein Volk, ein Reich……………………………and ein Fuhrer?
Either him or the rubber faced braying buffoon Cameron? Not much of a choice is it?
I will vote for Milliband the moment there is a christian heading the jewish state.
Most of them make me cringe now.
Have ANY of them got a clue about energy? Do they really believe that going back 200 years to wind power is the answer? Technological progress has been achieved through making use of ever more dense energy sources (J/kg) from grass, wood, charcoal, coal, oil to uranium. Typically wind in the UK has a millionth of the density of coal. It wouldn’t surprise me if most of them think electric cars could be powered by sticking a turbine on the front! We have scarcely enough electric power to meet current needs; filling up with 20 litres of petrol is equivalent to 4 days of charging from a 13A power point; a viable option? I think not. Within 20 years the IT and communications requirement will probably exceed our capacity – thank you HD video and software bloat.
Then we get the lovely Ms Hodge. Trying to bring in moral tax law from her libel-free seat on her select committee but unable to bring in actual effective tax law in her 17 years in government. She who believes that ‘more Europe’ is the answer to the ‘horse meat crisis’, even though the EU has current responsibility (NOT the UK government) and the absence of checks is the ‘single market’ in action. I think they have lied for so long they now believe it is the truth.
As the ‘Pythons’ said, let’s hope there is intelligent life out there because there is b***** all here on Earth.
The problem is that there are far too many politicians around trying to inflict political theories on people, rather than trying to find pragmatic solutions to current problems. It stems from far too much academic study untempered by the harsh realities of real life.
Give me politicians that know things rather than politicians that believe things. The ones that know things know that they don’t know it all, but the ones that believe things believe their beliefs will solve all problems – trouble is, they never have before, so why would they now?
I think MT said ‘the trouble with socialists is that eventually they run out of other peoples money to spend’.
It seems the lessons are never learned.
On the Miliband minor issue, wasn’t it he that introduced ridiculous and unsustainable feed in tariffs for solar panel installations, only weeks before losing office?
And IDS, working away, is perhaps instigating action based on knowledge, rather taking a line based on dogma.
I do hope so.
Typical champagne socialist who’s never had a real job,never created any wealth,never employed anyone.All he’s done is sponged off the public purse and will do for ever.
Problem is, we have a champagne capitalist with a similar CV as PM and a champagne opportunist as deputy. It would be a first if we had a PM who had spent ten years selling widgets to foreigners; the closest such experience among British politicians who became PM is five years’ killing foreigners, which is a different skillset, albeit ideal for a party leader.
And with Parliament infested with lawyers, how did the Jobseeker’s Allowance (Employment, Skills and Enterprise Scheme) (ESA) Regulations 2011 for that Poundland scheme ever get approved by M’Learned Friends? Don’t they bother to read the stuff they’re told how to vote on?
Mr Brian: the only three Prime Ministers who had business experience were Bonar Law, Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain, although their record in office is more debatable….
Mr Yardarm,
Alas, Bonar Law and Chamberlain became PM in their sixties only shortly before their deaths and were able to achieve little, but Baldwin’s record is now viewed more favourably than it was when it became trendy to criticise the very popular (at the time) policy of appeasement, or diplomacy as it would have been called if it had worked. And he was a fine One Nation politician.
Aaah, an ‘educatid’ opinion.
You do realise that Miliband’s Socialist Plan for converting the UK into a dust bowl within a decade, could never succeed without the police shiralee, WC Jaded?
Melvin if the country turns into a dust bowl then you wont have to worry about cutting your grass any more.
Back to the staring window,nearly time for your bed-bath.
I thought this Milliband naily his colours to the mast by supplanting his very own brother. Not a very tasty thing to do. Rather revealing of his character or not? Can’t stop thinking Gromet and friends when I see his mouth and those googly eyes. As said before, none of them inspire me at all. There….said that without any naughty words!!!!
I have the same reaction to Milliband and Balls, immediate change of channel or mute TV I can’t stand to listen to either of them and many others too. Can’t say I am anything but disappointed in Cameron and have come to loathe Glegg and Cable but still better than Milliband and his cohorts. Every time I hear ‘One Nation’ I automatically think Conservative so I wonder why Labour thinks it is a good idea to use it. Heaven help us all if they ever get back in, I am too old to leave now. Everything I have I have worked hard for, we started with nothing and who do they think they are to try and take what it has taken a lifetime to build for us and our children. Hypocrites the lot of them, the Milliband brothers minimised their inheritance tax and David is making a fortune outside parliament while hardly ever there, not that it stops him and Brown taking every penny of salary and allowances going. I hate politicians!
Of the two Eds, Balls is the really dangerous one. Milli Minor, as said by many above, is not up to the PM’s job (like the present empty vessel); but Balls is an economic disaster waiting to happen, which it might if all those bloody foolish moronic voters tick the usual boxes.
Can Ed Milliband talk? Well. well. you do surprise me.
The trouble with those two is that they were heavily influenced by some bloke called “Hobgoblin”… One of those unreconstructed socialists that know what Champagne is for, and it is definitely not for the proles.
Anyway, I reckon that in order to get some semblance of normal human life back into politics, we need to make a practise of shooting dead any sub ten year old student that volunteers to be a playground monitor or the like…
…For these are the little people that inevitably turn into professional politicians… The very act of lording it over one’s classmates is the sort of training that a “Milliband” type thrives on.
Further to the comments about “real” people taking up politics, the problem with “real” people is that they usually have a “real” past…..
“I had a fleeting bad thought. I was an angry young man in the middle of the miners’ strike.”
“A terrible thought came into my head and I immediately castigated myself for it.”
“I was honest because I said how I felt for a split second at the time.”
He said it was not his view now and had been taken out of context.
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10235284.Sorry___Labour_candidate_apologises_for_wishing_Thatcher_had_been_killed/?ref=mr
But the fratricidal Miliband’s voice and appearance are the only hope the Cons have of securing a majority next time out. That and the punishment the Libdems are going to get.
Keep putting him on the idiot box, so everyone gets to learn to hate him. I remember a certain Welsh Labour leader ( and now millionaire I believe ), who so underwhelmed the voters they elected the only man to ever run away from the Circus and become a politician.
I despair.
Electric car charging points in garages and driveways get 75% subsidy
So how will we power them?
Energy watchdog Ofgem chief warns of bill rises
The warning comes from Ofgem chief executive Alistair Buchanan, who says falls in the UK’s power production capacity are likely to lead to more energy imports and price rises.
The energy watchdog predicts power station closures could mean a 10% fall in capacity by April alone.
A pack of half-trained monkeys throwing dice could make better policy.
Two charging points in our council owned village carpark.
Don’t recall anybody asking for them, and I think I’d be aware.
Never seen them used,( never seen an electric car ), but it’s only a year or so since they were installed.
Two oversized parking spaces lost plus the cost of the fancy blue lit hardware.
Meanwhile more roofs are covered with Chinese solar panels financed by a govt encouraged pyramid scheme; or is that scam?
Have I got this right: if I install solar panels and connect them to an electric fire, placed outside to lose the heat on warm days, I’ll get a better return on my investment than if I feed back to the grid?
All at the expense of ….us?
As annoying as Ed’s nasal whining is, I have a cure for it: Ever since Labour went to court and successfully argued that manifestos aren’t binding, I ceased to listen to anything coming from the party machine.
You can lock me in the same room as the fat nosed idiot and any noise he said wouldn’t register. The advantage of being a man with selective hearing and a couple of decades bringing up kids.
Once Labour or any of the political parties can be trusted to actually deliver any policies they mention, then I’ll start listening and actually engage.
Until then I just regard it all as insubstantial pissing in the wind bollocks.
like ur style.
have a lot of background evidence on “various rings”. i believe you could help me tie up a few loose ends and show how it all fits into the bigger scheme of things.
please, have a look over my blog (started Very recent) have a think and, maybe, get back to me
Regards,
Kaz
PS: my mum says u havent changed a bit from the year you both went to “ding dong’s” for the summer. Prof. Bell’s camp.
Anna did not go to camp in Norfolk. When she was at Duncroft I was one of the girls chosen to go along with Denise G, Lisa C and Susan Jones chaperoned by Ann O’Neill. If you can believe anything she says, Bebe Roberts said somewhere thatr she went to camp but she went a year or two later! Who is your mother Kaz?
her name then was Brenda. she was the eldest, I believe at the time she was there. from Manchester. 65 and 66. would have been ’65 she went to camp.
Labour has a well-established habit of finger-wagging after they have fucked up the economy and been booted out. This is well-known and a constant in British political life.
Several things grate about Miliband:
The delivery is irritating and adenoidal. Nothing to be done about that short of major surgery, but several ideas occur, most involving a chainsaw.
The message is trivial and jejeune pap, but guaranteed to keep them ahead in the opinion polls.
The steadfast refusal (by all members of the Brown rump) to grovel in apology and retire from public life is risible.
The entire lot should be impeached for economic sabotage and imprisoned. Brown, however, should go to hospital. Broadmoor for choice.
The fact that he stabbed his brother in the back does not interest me. All socialists hate each other anyway.
But the depressing fact is that they are ahead in the opinion polls and will in all liklihood remain there. That this is deeply disturbing need not be exaggerated here, but suffice it to say that if they form the next government then the three terms of Blair and Brown will seem like the sunlit uplands by comparison as opposed to the pure unshirted hell which it represented for anyone with a brain cell.
But the guns will come out of the attic all over the place, I fear.
“Things can only get better…”
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