The Tony Blair Question is a fair one: is Ed Mili's Labour a Left wing or centre ground party?

We are all now familiar with Tony Blair's recent statements that:

“I am still very much New Labour and Ed Miliband would not describe himself in that way, so there is obviously a difference there,” he added. “I am convinced the Labour Party succeeds best when it is in the centre ground.”

This came from his recent interview with the Economist: see here - http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/30/tony-blair-ed-miliband-general-election-labour

Blair is clear in his own mind that Ed Miliband is left wing, and offering impractical solutions to the countries big questions - but upon this voters will have to decide. Put simply, what kind of Labour Party are they being offered?
As Dan Hodges, the columnist put it:
"For the past four years. Labour has been trying to win from the Left. The New Politics. The Thirty Five Per Cent strategy. Zen Politics. Whatever you wanted to call it, the grand plan – and the philosophy underpinning it – were clear. To win, Labour had to reject the consensus, “Big Tent” politics of Blairism."

Earlier this week, in a refreshingly honest open letter to Tony Blair, Neal Lawson – a member of Ed Miliband’s early kitchen cabinet – set out the thinking behind the strategy. “In hindsight, the wrong people were voting Labour. The tent was too big and you spent the next 10 years trying to keep the wrong people in it.”

The evidence against the 2 Eds is pretty clear: Labour has formally abandoned the political centre and swung to the Left. Deficit denial. Big state interventionism. Raw anti-capitalism. Public service protectionism; a nation divided between “producers and predators”.

For my part, I well remember the 1997 General Election and the Labour Party rightly won. Blair offered a centre left party which supported business, wanted to keep taxes down as they knew high taxes stop job creation, and which had a genuine offer to Mr and Mrs Middle Ground UK. Clearly the Labour Party lost its way during their 13 years in office but their message in 1997 was clear.

Under Ed Miliband and Ed Balls their hero is the far left socialist leader, Francois Hollande of France - he of the 75% taxes, anti business laws, and pro union policies. The results in France have been catastrophic. Minimal growth, mass unemployment, entrepreneurs and job creators leaving the country in droves.

So it is a fair question, posed by a Labour leader who won three elections largely from the entre: is Ed Miliband a centre ground politician or a left wing politician? That is for voters to decide, but the evidence is pretty clear. 

1 year to the election: look to France to see the kind of future awaits Britain if Miliband wins

Francois Hollande’s presidency has been a total disaster;
-         French unemployment is now over 10 per cent;
-         among the young it is 24 per cent.
-         His war on wealth creators has led to a collapse of foreign investment into the country — it has more than halved in the two years since he came into office.
-         In the same period, it has trebled in Germany. While most countries in the eurozone think the worst is behind them, France fears that the worst is yet to come.

Hollande cannot be faulted for being serious about doctrine. He wanted to impose a 75 per cent rate of tax on the richest, and when the courts struck that down he imposed it on the employers instead. Rather than leading to a flood of revenue, it has put up a ‘keep out’ sign above France for anyone serious about starting a business. Success is penalised. Miliband’s proposed above 50% tax rises would do precisely the same.

Meanwhile, George Osborne is squeezing the richest better than anyone: the best-paid 1 per cent now contribute 30 per cent of all income tax collected, the highest share in history. The Conservative party’s secret? It cut the top rate of tax. Hollande now talks grandly about his ‘responsibility pact’ with French business, whereby he cuts taxes in return for them taking on workers. It is not working. This is what George Osborne has been doing: since entering office, corporation tax has fallen from 28 to 21 per cent. Employment has soared to an all-time high (defying the predictions of Ed Balls, who said hopes of such a jobs surge was a ‘fantasy’). France has found out the hard way that no country has ever taxed its way into prosperity; if Miliband wins the election, and implements his agenda, Britain will be plunged into precisely the same crisis which now engulfs France. The stakes at the next election are terrifyingly high.

Miliband's Bon Ami Hollande shows why French socialism is no way to run a country

As the French economy struggles on and socialism fails I am not sure Ed Miliband will continue to argue that the French way is a better way. But if you want an understanding of how bad Britain would be under the 2 Ed's then France is your example.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10735650/Francois-Hollande-picks-a-government-of-combat-after-disaster-at-the-polls.html

Francois Hollande - is he still Ed Miliband's "Bon Ami"?

"This new leadership is sorely needed as Europe seeks to escape from austerity … He has shown that the centre-Left can offer hope and win elections with a vision of a better, more equal and just world." Ed Miliband's words on President Hollande's election victory in 2012


France now sees negative growth in Q3, unemployment at 11 per cent and rising, 75% taxes, public spending as a percentage of GDP second-highest in the eurozone, unions kidnapping business leaders [I kid you not – see the Goodyear story], and I have totally ignored the President’s private life. Yesterday at PMQs things went from bad to worse for Ed with the last question of the day:

Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con):
"The Leader of the Opposition has said, “What Hollande is doing in France I want to do in Britain.” Given recent events across the channel, does my right hon. Friend agree that that is completely at odds with our long-term economic plan?"

The Prime Minister:
"I did not catch all of President Hollande’s press conference yesterday, because I was appearing in front of the Liaison Committee, but one thing that I did notice is that the French proposals now are to cut spending in order to cut taxes in order to make the economy more competitive. Perhaps the shadow Chancellor, in his new silent form, will want to consider some of those ideas and recognise that this revolution of making business more competitive and trying to win in the global race is a proper plan for the economy."

France right now is what a Labour government would be like - unemployment rising, no deficit reduction plan

"Business confidence is falling. Unemployment has risen to 10.9%, a 16-year high. Only months after escaping one recession, the nation is on the brink of another. Time to adopt Labour's plan B? No, because this is France – plan B is already in place, and the bad economic news is its grisly fruit.

At one time, it seemed as if the British left would never stop talking about a grand economic alternative to austerity. There was even a march for the alternative - though none of its proponents were very specific about exactly how the alternative would work. The most you could get out of them was this: austerity would be stopped; the rich would be made to pay far higher taxes; the deficit could look after itself, or else it would be magically paid off by a plan-B boom."

Full details about why The Two Eds have no economic credibility is set out in more detail here in  the guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/18/labour-plan-b-france-economic-disaster-ed-balls-austerity

If you want more spending, more borrowing and no turnaround of the British economy then do vote Labour. The reality is that you will end up with a scenario that is just like France, which is failing to confront the problem that it continues to spend more than it earns. This leads to greater unemployment, no growth, a relapse into further recession and no action on the deficit.