Watching Ed Miliband interviewed yesterday I found myself
yelling at the screen, something which I rarely do nowadays. This I reserve for
special occasions; times when Owen Jones appears to expel his self-righteous ‘twaddle’,
or when Diane Abbot decides to expose her regionalistic inverse snobbery on
subjects regarding her precious constituents. Anyhow, whether or not I usually
reserve bad behaviour for these particular occasions is immaterial. Yesterday I
screamed with exacerbation on behalf of Ed Miliband as it struck me that
finally he was teetering on the edge of being himself. Perhaps finally we, ‘the
great British public’ might get an insight into what he really believes other
than the usual run down of robotic campaign slogans that might have the most
attentive of viewer mistake him for a telesales representative. ‘This is why
Evan, and let me explain.’
Politicians and journalists alike have become fixated on the
economic welfare of our nation and rightly so one might say. However, the
measure most commonly used as a method of projecting future either economic
strife or prosperity is immeasurably flawed and although Ed Miliband knows this
he hasn’t broken from his telesales script to broadcast his thoughts on the
subject.
GDP is the Office for National Statistics’ supposed best
aggregate measure of economic activity. However, measuring GDP per annum tells
us little for instance about out individual economic welfare. In 2006 our
headline GDP stood at 128 and has risen fairly steadily to 136. However GDP per
capita for that period, the period of the global financial crisis, has fallen
steadily from 132 to 122. Now these are just unit-less statistics but in order
to combat the clear tory message of fiscal responsibility it is my view that
the Labour campaign must set Ed free.
Along with GDP growth figures being used as a baton to bash
the labour hopefuls, so are the ONS’ unemployment figures. This also is a very
flawed measure of the health of our economy on its prospective prosperity. Ed
knows this, but apart from only briefly mentioning a ‘rise in inequality’ and the
nation not working for the many but only for the privileged view, there was
nothing in last night’s interview that allowed Labour to capitalise on the
flaws in the way unemployment and GDP is brandished about by the Tories.
Unemployment figures have fallen but the nature of the work
we are doing has changed. What’s considered full time employment is at the
discretion of the employer and 30+ hours a week may often be considered full
time by the majority of employers depending on the sector in which they
subsist. 4.6 million of us were seeking self-employment this year and part time
employment peaked at 8.1 million. So with this in ‘mind’ has the labour camp
lost theirs, or are they just terrified of the polls and therefore intent on
keeping on message. It’s ‘kinda’ working and Ed is ‘kinda’ likable now so let’s
stick with it.
I wonder if the rise in Eds personal popularity ratings is
what is feeding into this, what I can only see as a, ‘don’t let Red Ed run his
mouth policy.’