EdM: Cameron pushing ‘knee-jerk gimmicks’


by Newswire    
9:10 am - August 15th 2011

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Labour leader Ed Miliband will make a speech today attacking “knee-jerk gimmicks” by the Conservative party in the aftermath of the England-wide riots.

He will say that a strong response to restore order must be followed by “real change” in the lives of communities blighted by the riots.

He will also quote David Cameron’s own words at him, who said earlier: “But there are connections between circumstances and behaviour” — and ask for Cameron to keep that in mind.

On culture and values he will say:

The greed, selfishness and gross irresponsibility that shocked us all so deeply is not just confined to what is being portrayed as a feckless and feral underclass in Britain.

We can’t say the looters are the only ones who have demonstrated greed, selfishness and immorality. Indeed, it’s not the first time we’ve seen this kind of me-first, take what you can attitude.

The bankers who took millions while destroying people’s savings: greedy, selfish, immoral. The MPs who fiddled their expenses: greedy, selfish, immoral.

The people who hacked phones to get stories and make money for themselves: greedy, selfish and immoral. Let’s talk about what this does to our culture.

And let’s not pretend that the values crisis in our society is confined to a minority only at the bottom when we see the morality of millions of hardworking decent people under siege from the top as well.

He will also say that those on the right who dismiss opportunity, deprivation and hope as factors are wrong.

We are failing far too many of our young people. They are not convinced that our country offers them a future.
…
I am clear: both culture and deprivation matter. To explain is not to excuse.

But to refuse to explain is to condemn to repeat.

And in the battle to give hope and a sense of future to our young people, too often we are losing to the gangs who offer false hope, a false sense of identity, sometimes an income – the gangs that scar life in parts of our inner cities.

The speech will be made at Ed Miliband’s former school, Haverstock Comprehensive.

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Reader comments


1. Ray_North

I am glad to hear Ed Miliband speech today – the initial response that ‘now was not the time for analysis’ was depressingly simplistic.
The riots have given us the opportunity to debate the hugely important issue of how to build a fair society that deals properly social depravation at the bottom and greed and avarice at the top. It is exactly the reason most of us came into politics in the first place, certainly why Ed Miliband did – he has the chance to lead this debate.

We expand on this and analyse the response from all the parties in the following article:
http://www.allthatsleft.co.uk/2011/08/london-riots-the-political-fallout/

2. Jim

If this is the start of a more robust leadership on the Labour front benches then I am all for Ed’s speech. However, if the past is anything to by, this is little more than a foot stamping exercise before the ‘Left’ capitulate and get into lock step with the idiotic wing of the Right.

Cameron and the others have been mouthing the same crap as the idiotic Right for the last couple of days. He has been playing Right Wing bingo with the best of them, but has so far resisted any attempt at getting at the root causes of social unrest, far less actually trying to solve what issues he has identified.

If Ed is attempting to shift the debate into analysis of what actually needs to be done to tackle say, single mothers, then we can all agree that is a good thing, but if this is Ed prepare the ground for a further shift to the Right (as I suspect) then he will have consigned this Country to the dustbin.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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