Ed Miliband has pledged to take on “vested interests” and “powerful forces” in his bid to win the next general election. Not even the Crosby and Murdoch orchestrated media campaign, which was aimed at demoralising, undermining and monstering Ed Miliband can disguise the fact that the Tories are in a state of panic.
In fact the media campaign, aimed at attempting
to undermine Miliband’s credibility as a leader, arose precisely because
Miliband is the biggest threat to the UK power base and status quo that
we’ve seen for many decades. He’s challenging the neo-liberal consensus
of the past 30 years – now that is a plain indication of strong
leadership, and personal strength and courage.
As for the media, and the attempt at
agenda-setting, well we’ve known for the past four years that there is
now a big chasm between what is real, and what is deemed “newsworthy”.
Because the mainstream media have no interest in public interests, only
vested ones. It’s about time that we reclaimed our democracy and showed
them that WE set the agenda, not overpaid and highly corrupted
journalists and editors. Or monopolies like the wake of scandals that is
News Corp.
He said he would “I am willing to put up with whatever is thrown at me in order to fight for you.”, and that it was the party’s “duty… not to shrink from the fight, not to buckle under the pressure but to win”.
This is a very strong indication of a very strong leader, who won’t be threatened or intimidated by Crosby’s dog-whistle, negative smear campaigning tactics. Miliband has indicated quite plainly that he intends to return to the “true soul” of the Labour Party, his frequent use of “together” putting social solidarity back on the agenda, and heralding a new politics of social and economic democracy. Miliband is about a politics where no-one is abandoned.
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said there had not been a “shred of truth” in a newspaper story linking him with a leadership plot, calling it “pure fiction”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, he said Mr Miliband had shown “courageous leadership” in the face of attacks from “vested interests” who did not want Labour to win.
He added: “There has been a campaign in the last few days to destabilise and demoralise us.
“My message today is that it won’t work, in fact it is going to galvanise us.”
And it has.
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