Ed Milliband is the new leader of the UK Labour Party

[Kantor]

Homer_Simpson said:

Kantor said:

Homer_Simpson said:

this is the real result the Right feared imo, they know the Lib Dems will collapse at the next GE and that the cuts will lose the Tories much of there centre ground support, Conservatives wanted David because he would have been more moderate and closer to Blair, he also would have given them an easy ride on the cuts because he backs many of them. Ed is a real threat because he can get working class and young voters behind him, and almost certainly will, with them and lapsed Lib Dems and centerists alienated by cuts, Labour will be right in there with the Tories in 2015, will be another very close election, if its with AV, probably another co-allition.

the Right will be much more attacking on EM, which will backfire, its transparent that they are scared of having a real debate potentially now between Left and Right again, and many voters may well be turned away from the Tories if they go back to nasty petulant attacks rather than policy debate.

You're not serious.

The British electorate is not left wing. Not in the slightest. Indeed, no really left wing leader has been elected in...over 30 years. The last elected left-wing PM was James Callaghan. He was destroyed by Mararet Thatcher in 1979. Let's look at this:

The 1980s. A choice between Margaret Thatcher (incidentally, the best PM since Churchill) and a left-wing Labour. Most people (being idiots) didn't like Thatcher. But they hated Labour more. Much, much more. Thatcher crushed the trade unions, and the people loved it. Fastforward to 2010. People don't hate Cameron. And we have a left-wing Labour. With a leader elected by the trade unions.

The 1990s. Thatcher was gone. What did it take to end 18 years of Tory rule? Firstly, financial collapse. But that wasn't enough, no. Secondly, Tony Blair. Just about the most popular politician ever. A centre-right Labour leader who learned from Thatcher, who was approved by Thatcher, who went on to win three elections and be PM for ten years. Only finally resigned because of a bad decision regarding Iraq.

The 2000s. Blair resigned. Everyone hated Brown, for the aforementioned reason that British people aren't left-wing. Brown becomes Prime Minister. Labour support tanks. Cameron, for some inexplicable reason, moves left. Unelected left wing PM Brown is kicked out of Downing Street.

There will be no uniting of the left-wing under Ed, because there is no left-wing, only an extraordinarily large centre, which Tony Blair managed to tap into, which David Miliband might have tapped into, and which Lefty Miliband will never touch.

rofl, wow, seriously, dont get a job in politics mate, you clearly havent a clue.

Labours problems in the 80's were due to in fighting, lack of direction, and no leader who could unite Left and Centre Left support.

Brown is NOT left wing, at best he is centrist

there is a sizable Left in the UK, its just been divided since the 80's, some went Lib Dem, some stayed Labour, others just didnt vote (hence higher levels of apathy and lower turnouts in recent elections), Ed Milliband has a real chance if he can tap into this, thats what Tories fear, and probably why you are saying these things in fairness, the Right will panic now and turn nasty again, its quite funny to watch really, your own conviction that he cant win could hand him victory.

This is the very definition of in-fighting! Why do you think Ed kept going on about sticking together? It's because the Party did not vote for him as leader. The Labour Party voted for David Miliband. The trade unions voted for Ed Miliband. If they weren't brothers, they would be at each others' throats. And I don't see how David can possibly be Chancellor when they disagree on everything.

Alright, there is a left wing in the UK. But it is laughably small. Blair won with centre-left and centrist support. He was capable of uniting everyone from far left (the very few) all the way to centre right, to begin with. That's why he led Labour to the largest swing in British electoral history. Ed Miliband cannot do that, because he is stuck in the past with Old, far-left Labour, no matter how much he goes on about forgetting the past and moving to a future which is laughably idealistic and bordering on Communist. Perhaps that's because his father was a Communist. Maybe David was closer to his mother? Ed also has the support of the most hated organisations in the United Kingdom.

David Miliband was a threat to the Tories because he was a centrist. He, alone out of all the candiates, was capable of pulling a Tony Blair. It wouldn't be easy, since everyone has grown to hate Tony Blair, but it would be possible. Cameron would be fighting with D. Miliband for the centrist vote. He doesn't have to fight with Ed for that because no centrist in their right mind would consider voting for Ed. And yet, I would rather have David M as Prime Minister than any other Labour candiate, because you need to unite the left, centre and right to form an effective government and not lapse into the extreme socialism of Labour in the 70s and 80s.

Really, the only way this could have been better for the Conservatives is if Diane Abbott had got in. She would have literally torn the party to the ground.

Oh, and also, you have to realise that the Labour leader will be fighting the election at perhaps the height of Conservative popularity - when the deficit is gone, the taxes are decreasing and the government departments are getting additional funds. I originally thought that it would be best for the Tories to sit it out, let the Lib Dems and Labour form a coalition with all the National Parties and that Green woman, let the coalition collapse and then step in. But now I realise just how well the strategy he followed could potentially work, especially against Mr. Miliband here.