Yesterday Ed Miliband was asked in a Q and A when he would “bring back socialism”. He replied: “That’s what we are doing, Sir".
Speaking ahead of the Labour conference, Mr Miliband detailed a series of policies intended to appeal to Labour voters, including:
- scrapping the “spare room subsidy” = a policy in the Labour 2010 manifesto, and a U turn on welfare reform which he previously accepted was part of the required need to cut the nations welfare bill.
- ending zero hours contracts = a policy that his own council in Doncaster uses, as do local authorities up and down the country. A policy that many locals here in Northumberland have made clear they support.
- opposing the privatisation of Royal Mail = Labour party policy pre 2010, and the only way Royal Mail will survive.
Primary School Plans: these I find fascinating and bizarre even from Ed.
He also announced plans under which primary schools would be forced by law to look after pupils from 8am until 6pm. How would this be costed?
He said it “doesn’t make sense in this century” that some schools still close in the midafternoon, when both parents more often work.
He promised to “legislate for a primary school guarantee that every school is an 8am to 6pm school”
The primary and first school teachers I know who do a fantastic job in Northumberland would have a word or two to say about that plan.
Aside from all these things these are yet more spending commitments by a man without a clue about balancing the books.
