Why should the sepulchral tone of Ed Miliband’s voice offend me so? Fill me with dread that creates a shiver the length of my spine?

I should be impervious to personal characteristics; ignoring the style of dress or hair that are merely personal choice; the vestiges of another culture inherent in a strong accent – and generally I am. I don’t draw conclusions on policy from Theresa May’s selection of shoes; or Tom Watson’s ratio of body fat to healthy muscle – yet let me hear just half a dozen syllables from the Miliband verbal orifice, as instantly recognisable as John Wayne’s, and my prejudice tumbles out pre-formed.

I never want to see a government presided over by that man!

I don’t hear the policy announcement; I hear the whining tone of the school bully, unexpectedly finding himself on the other end of retribution, full of self entitlement, bloated with indignation. I hear the nasal twang of ‘Malcolm’ in the Vick advertisements   – the self pity of the man with ‘man flu’. I hear the child in the back seat – ‘are we nearly there yet?’ – that total absence of appreciation of the realities of the grown up world of Bank Holiday traffic jams.

“S’not fair” it calls to me.

A voice should not affect me so; though Margaret Thatcher had to lose the Hyacinth Bucket timbre of middle class Grantham before Arthur Scargill imploded – perhaps I am not alone in my reaction to a voice. I had a Mynah Bird called Arthur Scargill once, who had grown up in a Gay pub in Vauxhall and amused me no end with his Kenneth William’s camp voice lisping ‘You’re a big boy, you’re very naice’ – he fell off his perch, downed by laryngitis eventually…I digress, as usual, but filled with hope.

It’s the voice of the ‘Supergrass’, the man who has grown fat on the proceeds of just that which he would now deny others; the man who would seek the protection of being on what he perceives as the winning side, now that it suits his purposes. The Changeling, the Quisling. The voice of Lord Haw-Haw.

It is a voice of aspiration, to be sure, but aspiration merely for what others already have. The childish pleading that says ‘all my friends have got one’. Would we ever see aspiration for the pursuit of excellence with such a mentality in charge? Would Thomas Chippendale rise from a poverty stricken background by dint of his pursuit of excellence for its own sake, or would he be bemoaning the lack of jobs for coffin makers in Otley and demanding that the gentry of London increase his benefits?

There was another of the Daily Mail’s ‘whohoo the foreigners are coming’ piece on Friday:

Under a loophole in EU immigration rules, Big Issue sellers can claim ‘self-employed status’, thereby gaining a National Insurance number and, with it, an instant legal foothold in the British labour market.

Last year, it emerged that an astonishing one in three of all of the title’s street sellers in Britain comes from Romania. Most of them — like Iordan — also hail from the country’s Roma gypsy community.

‘My uncle says you make £40-£45 each day selling the magazine,’ he explains, speaking through a translator. ‘Here in Romania, I sometimes don’t make that in a week. That’s why many people like me are putting their hope in your country.’

Iordan, 35, will be treading a well-worn path. So far, 15 of his cousins have gone to the UK, joining around 100,000 of their countrymen. They, too, supported themselves by hawking The Big Issue, but have mostly graduated to higher-paying jobs.

‘Once you are set up in London, they say there is plenty of work,’ he says. ‘I’ll soon find something in construction, or at car washes; wherever the money is best.’

Where was Miliband’s response to the news that there were jobs aplenty at £40-£50 a day – and more – in London? That people who barely speak english can travel halfway across Europe in the rush to take them up? His answer to the poor of Britain was a Mansion Tax, take from those who have to give to those who haven’t; and a 10p tax break – tax break? The Government have already raised tax free allowances,  essentially a zero tax rate – by several thousand pounds!

That, I realised finally was my objection to his voice. It is not that I dislike it intrinsically, it is that it has come to represent a ‘one nation Britain’ that involves bringing those who make no effort up to what is left of the level of those who have strived – and leaves no room for the pursuit of excellence or altruism.  It is a dour Marxism, that would have been the death knell for Miliband senior, an immigrant himself, who prospered under a very different Britain.

It is the authentic voice of Hypocrisy. The voice of Gordon Brown. Devoid of substance, determined to suppress initiative; pandering only to the willful child.

It makes me cringe.

Robert Edwards
February 20, 2013 at 10:00

Labour has a well-established habit of finger-wagging after they have
fucked up the economy and been booted out. This is well-known and a constant
in British political life.

Several things grate about Miliband:
The delivery is irritating and
adenoidal. Nothing to be done about that short of major surgery, but several
ideas occur, most involving a chainsaw.
The message is trivial and jejeune
pap, but guaranteed to keep them ahead in the opinion polls.
The steadfast
refusal (by all members of the Brown rump) to grovel in apology and retire
from public life is risible.
The entire lot should be impeached for
economic sabotage and imprisoned. Brown, however, should go to hospital.
Broadmoor for choice.
The fact that he stabbed his brother in the back does
not interest me. All socialists hate each other anyway.

But the depressing fact is that they are ahead in the opinion polls and
will in all liklihood remain there. That this is deeply disturbing need not be
exaggerated here, but suffice it to say that if they form the next government
then the three terms of Blair and Brown will seem like the sunlit uplands by
comparison as opposed to the pure unshirted hell which it represented for
anyone with a brain cell.

But the guns will come out of the attic all over the place, I fear.

“Things can only get better…”

kaz February 20,
2013 at 00:45

like ur style.
have a lot of background evidence on “various rings”. i
believe you could help me tie up a few loose ends and show how it all fits
into the bigger scheme of things.
please, have a look over my blog (started
Very recent) have a think and, maybe, get back to me

Regards,

Kaz

PS: my mum says u havent changed a bit from the year you both went to “ding
dong’s” for the summer. Prof. Bell’s camp.

Ellen Coulson (nee
Dunn) February 20, 2013 at 15:13

Anna did not go to camp in Norfolk. When she was at Duncroft I was one of
the girls chosen to go along with Denise G, Lisa C and Susan Jones
chaperoned by Ann O’Neill. If you can believe anything she says, Bebe
Roberts said somewhere thatr she went to camp but she went a year or two
later! Who is your mother Kaz?

kaz February
20, 2013 at 18:36

her name then was Brenda. she was the eldest, I believe at the time she
was there. from Manchester. 65 and 66. would have been ’65 she went to
camp.

Delphius February
19, 2013 at 23:43

As annoying as Ed’s nasal whining is, I have a cure for it: Ever since
Labour went to court and successfully argued that manifestos aren’t binding, I
ceased to listen to anything coming from the party machine.

You can lock me in the same room as the fat nosed idiot and any noise he
said wouldn’t register. The advantage of being a man with selective hearing
and a couple of decades bringing up kids.

Once Labour or any of the political parties can be trusted to actually
deliver any policies they mention, then I’ll start listening and actually
engage.

Until then I just regard it all as insubstantial pissing in the wind
bollocks.

JimS February 19, 2013 at 20:13

I despair.

Electric car charging points in garages and driveways get 75%
subsidy

So how will we power them?

Energy watchdog Ofgem chief warns of bill rises

The warning comes from Ofgem chief executive Alistair Buchanan, who says
falls in the UK’s power production capacity are likely to lead to more energy
imports and price rises.
The energy watchdog predicts power station
closures could mean a 10% fall in capacity by April alone.

A pack of half-trained monkeys throwing dice could make better policy.

binao February 19, 2013 at 23:13

Two charging points in our council owned village carpark.
Don’t recall
anybody asking for them, and I think I’d be aware.
Never seen them used,(
never seen an electric car ), but it’s only a year or so since they were
installed.
Two oversized parking spaces lost plus the cost of the fancy
blue lit hardware.
Meanwhile more roofs are covered with Chinese solar
panels financed by a govt encouraged pyramid scheme; or is that
scam?
Have I got this right: if I install solar panels and connect them
to an electric fire, placed outside to lose the heat on warm days, I’ll get
a better return on my investment than if I feed back to the grid?
All at
the expense of ….us?

davidb February 19, 2013 at 18:46

But the fratricidal Miliband’s voice and appearance are the only hope the
Cons have of securing a majority next time out. That and the punishment the
Libdems are going to get.

Keep putting him on the idiot box, so everyone gets to learn to hate him. I
remember a certain Welsh Labour leader ( and now millionaire I believe ), who
so underwhelmed the voters they elected the only man to ever run away from the
Circus and become a politician.

Moor
Larkin February 19, 2013 at 11:27

Further to the comments about “real” people taking up politics, the problem
with “real” people is that they usually have a “real” past…..

“I had a fleeting bad thought. I was an angry young man in the middle of
the miners’ strike.”
“A terrible thought came into my head and I
immediately castigated myself for it.”
“I was honest because I said how I
felt for a split second at the time.”
He said it was not his view now and
had been taken out of context.
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10235284.Sorry___Labour_candidate_apologises_for_wishing_Thatcher_had_been_killed/?ref=mr

right_writes February 19, 2013 at 10:11

The trouble with those two is that they were heavily influenced by some
bloke called “Hobgoblin”… One of those unreconstructed socialists that know
what Champagne is for, and it is definitely not for the proles.

Anyway, I reckon that in order to get some semblance of normal human life
back into politics, we need to make a practise of shooting dead any sub ten
year old student that volunteers to be a playground monitor or the like…

…For these are the little people that inevitably turn into professional
politicians… The very act of lording it over one’s classmates is the sort of
training that a “Milliband” type thrives on.

Elena ‘andcart
February 19, 2013 at 01:48

Can Ed Milliband talk? Well. well. you do surprise me.

Ed P February 18, 2013 at 22:43

Of the two Eds, Balls is the really dangerous one. Milli Minor, as said by
many above, is not up to the PM’s job (like the present empty vessel); but
Balls is an economic disaster waiting to happen, which it might if all those
bloody foolish moronic voters tick the usual boxes.

carol42 February 18, 2013 at 21:54

I have the same reaction to Milliband and Balls, immediate change of
channel or mute TV I can’t stand to listen to either of them and many others
too. Can’t say I am anything but disappointed in Cameron and have come to
loathe Glegg and Cable but still better than Milliband and his cohorts. Every
time I hear ‘One Nation’ I automatically think Conservative so I wonder why
Labour thinks it is a good idea to use it. Heaven help us all if they ever get
back in, I am too old to leave now. Everything I have I have worked hard for,
we started with nothing and who do they think they are to try and take what it
has taken a lifetime to build for us and our children. Hypocrites the lot of
them, the Milliband brothers minimised their inheritance tax and David is
making a fortune outside parliament while hardly ever there, not that it stops
him and Brown taking every penny of salary and allowances going. I hate
politicians!

Mizz Mildred
February 18, 2013 at 21:04

I thought this Milliband naily his colours to the mast by supplanting his
very own brother. Not a very tasty thing to do. Rather revealing of his
character or not? Can’t stop thinking Gromet and friends when I see his mouth
and those googly eyes. As said before, none of them inspire me at all.
There….said that without any naughty words!!!!

jaded February 18, 2013 at 17:53

Typical champagne socialist who’s never had a real job,never created any
wealth,never employed anyone.All he’s done is sponged off the public purse and
will do for ever.

Brian February
18, 2013 at 19:53

Problem is, we have a champagne capitalist with a similar CV as PM and a
champagne opportunist as deputy. It would be a first if we had a PM who had
spent ten years selling widgets to foreigners; the closest such experience
among British politicians who became PM is five years’ killing foreigners,
which is a different skillset, albeit ideal for a party leader.

And with Parliament infested with lawyers, how did the Jobseeker’s
Allowance (Employment, Skills and Enterprise Scheme) (ESA) Regulations 2011
for that Poundland scheme ever get approved by M’Learned Friends? Don’t they
bother to read the stuff they’re told how to vote on?

Yardarm February 18, 2013 at 20:16

Mr Brian: the only three Prime Ministers who had business experience
were Bonar Law, Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain, although their record in
office is more debatable….

Brian February 18, 2013 at 22:49

Mr Yardarm,
Alas, Bonar Law and Chamberlain became PM in their
sixties only shortly before their deaths and were able to achieve
little, but Baldwin’s record is now viewed more favourably than it was
when it became trendy to criticise the very popular (at the time) policy
of appeasement, or diplomacy as it would have been called if it had
worked. And he was a fine One Nation politician.

MTG February 18, 2013 at 20:43

Aaah, an ‘educatid’ opinion.
You do realise that Miliband’s Socialist
Plan for converting the UK into a dust bowl within a decade, could never
succeed without the police shiralee, WC Jaded?

jaded February 19, 2013 at 11:20

Melvin if the country turns into a dust bowl then you wont have to
worry about cutting your grass any more.
Back to the staring
window,nearly time for your bed-bath.

binao February 18, 2013 at 17:38

I think MT said ‘the trouble with socialists is that eventually they run
out of other peoples money to spend’.
It seems the lessons are never
learned.
On the Miliband minor issue, wasn’t it he that introduced
ridiculous and unsustainable feed in tariffs for solar panel installations,
only weeks before losing office?
And IDS, working away, is perhaps
instigating action based on knowledge, rather taking a line based on
dogma.
I do hope so.

Engineer February 18, 2013 at 14:37

The problem is that there are far too many politicians around trying to
inflict political theories on people, rather than trying to find pragmatic
solutions to current problems. It stems from far too much academic study
untempered by the harsh realities of real life.

Give me politicians that know things rather than politicians that believe
things. The ones that know things know that they don’t know it all, but the
ones that believe things believe their beliefs will solve all problems –
trouble is, they never have before, so why would they now?

JimS February 18, 2013 at 12:57

Most of them make me cringe now.

Have ANY of them got a clue about energy? Do they really believe that going
back 200 years to wind power is the answer? Technological progress has been
achieved through making use of ever more dense energy sources (J/kg) from
grass, wood, charcoal, coal, oil to uranium. Typically wind in the UK has a
millionth of the density of coal. It wouldn’t surprise me if
most of them think electric cars could be powered by sticking a turbine on the
front! We have scarcely enough electric power to meet current needs; filling
up with 20 litres of petrol is equivalent to 4 days of charging from a 13A
power point; a viable option? I think not. Within 20 years the IT and
communications requirement will probably exceed our capacity – thank you HD
video and software bloat.

Then we get the lovely Ms Hodge. Trying to bring in moral tax law from her
libel-free seat on her select committee but unable to bring in actual
effective tax law in her 17 years in government. She who believes that ‘more
Europe’ is the answer to the ‘horse meat crisis’, even though the EU has
current responsibility (NOT the UK government) and the absence of checks is
the ‘single market’ in action. I think they have lied for so long they now
believe it is the truth.

As the ‘Pythons’ said, let’s hope there is intelligent life out there
because there is b***** all here on Earth.

Andy February 18, 2013 at 12:04

Either him or the rubber faced braying buffoon Cameron? Not much of a
choice is it?

I will vote for Milliband the moment there is a christian heading the
jewish state.

ifabloke February 18, 2013 at 11:44

Ein Volk, ein Reich……………………………and ein Fuhrer?

Michael February 18, 2013 at 11:42

Seen elsewhere, made me laugh. – “I can’t understand a word that comes out
of his nose”.

GildasTheMonk
February 18, 2013 at 11:18

One of the anthems of many politicians, but partricularly the left, is that
politics is not about personalities, it is about policies. That is a best a
total misunderstanding of the nature of politics, and the world, and at worst
a lie, designed to prevent rational thought. Policy and personality are
intrinsically linked, because we (or most of us) are human beings, not simply
machines that work by the principles of Newtonian science. The essence of
Thatcher was her nature as Thatcher, for example; that informed her approach
to problems and policies. The essence of Gordon Brown was not not a theorem in
a book, but a paranoid aggrandising lunatic.
Any politician in a Greek City
State or the Roman Forum would have understood this.
It is therefore both
inevitable and rational to form and take into account whether one “likes” or
“trusts” or “has faith in” as a person.
My personal view is that Ed should
not be allowed to run a toy train set, let alone a country, but then that’s
just me. In fact, I cant think of many politicians that i would like or trust
at all. One might be Frank Field MP, a man of the left but a man prepared to
say harsh truths, and much hated by the spin doctor’s of New Labour. It may
say something about me or them, but I can’t think of another politician I
would say I would particulrly trust, or like. And that goes for jovial,
bonkers (meaning well branded, ambitious and philandering) Boris.
We are
currently being fed the line that there is unlikely to be an influx of
Romanians. Just as we were informed that there would be no ingress of
Poles.

John
Galt February 18, 2013 at 11:37

Not quite so sure, despite his pathetic period in office as Tory leader,
Iain Duncan Smith seems to have a genuine understanding of the welfare from
the perspective of both the needs of the recipients and the limits of the
chequebook of the state. Whether this is sufficient is debatable, but a
politician who has been near the top, bares the scars and is still committed
to tackling the hard issues seems to me the ‘least worst’ sort.

Maybe there is some characteristic common to those who are genuinely
intent on reforming the welfare trap.

GildasTheMonk
February 18, 2013 at 11:53

Ineresting John, beacuse IDS did actually flicker across my
consciousness as a decent man trying to get to grips wih an intractable
problem. I am sure there are a few more, but precious few, methinks.

Jonathan
Mason February 18, 2013 at 12:52

I have been away from the UK for many years, so not really up to date
on all the details, but it does seem strange to me that so many Rumanians
wish to move to the UK and so few Brits in the other direction, so one
must assume that there is a financial gain to be had by moving to the UK.
This may be in terms of available work for higher pay than available in
Rumania, in which case you might see a lot of single arrivals who work and
send money back home to the family, but may also be influenced by
government benefits such as housing and health care for families. If that
is the case, it seems that some parts of the EU treaty are probably
deficient.

In the US any person may move from any state to establish residence in
any other state, or, I think in Puerto Rico, but it doesn’t seem that many
people want to take advantage of this, otherwise I imagine we would see a
vast influx of unemployed workers from Florida or Nevada moving to Hawaii
or Alaska, but we don’t. I am sure this is because it is not economically
beneficial for unemployed workers to make these moves.

Here in the Dominican Republic there are many Haitian migrant workers,
many of whom are illegal. They don’t get any kind of government benefits,
and work mostly in agriculture, construction, and prostitution.
Agriculture and construction may pay as little as $2.50 per day, while
prostitution may pay from $20 to $60 per hour when contract work is
available, however available hours are very limited. There is no
subsidized housing for Haitians, however some may shack up with or marry
Dominicans.

I believe free vaccinations are available for Haitian children.

Hong Kil
Tong February 20, 2013 at 12:43

Wasn’t Trujillo’s mother a Haitian immigrant?

Sam Smith February 18, 2013 at 12:57

It is about both politics and personality. I have to say though, the
election of Ed Miliband underlined the wisdom and righteousness of my
decision to leave Labour and join the Conservatives. What a poor excuse for
the leader of one of Britain’s largest parties – and what a paltry field he
was selected from! I cannot help but look at them and reflect on the decade
of Tony and Gordon – what a wasted opportunity.

Yardarm February 18, 2013 at 20:06

Play the man and not the ball, Mr Gildas ? Exactly. Miliband is a
pathetic whining entitlement drone clerk, whose first ‘job ‘ was carrying
Harriet Harmans handbag and the hopless squirt was overpromoted then; one of
Browns ‘ young men’ on an MP`s meal ticket; out of his depth in the Gobi
Desert: when faced with the actual prospect of power he`ll soil himself and
puke with terror and plead ‘ he didn`t mean to ‘.

Duncan Smith. A failure until he discovered the best welfare scheme for
unemployables, becoming an MP. A quarter century of parasitism, his ‘ career
‘ has been distinguished only by letting Jug Ears off the hook over Iraq and
whining piteously for his meal ticket : ‘ turning up the volume ‘. Both
these careerist teat hanging chair polishers should be fucked off down the
job centre: their state handouts ( their damned salaries) ended and be
forced to stack shelves; on the min, no suit, no office, exculpating their
miserable existences by doing a proper job.

GildasTheMonk
February 19, 2013 at 08:43

ooooomph!

Engineer
February 19, 2013 at 09:18

Sir – your attack on IDS is harsh. He was no great shakes as party
leader, true enough; since then, he has invested time in studying the
welfare system, including by doing what few politicians are willing to do,
namely, talk to those at the receiving end. He deserves respect for
tackling a very difficult, but very pressing, problem in trying to make
the welfare system workable and fair to both recipients and taxpayers.
This task is something that career politicians for at least two decades
have run screaming from, seeing only a career graveyard and personal
unpopularity. That IDS is prepared to risk both in order to try to make
the system better is very much to his credit.

Yardarm
February 19, 2013 at 20:33

Mr Engineer, IDS would be best off studying the welfare system by
joining it, although he already has, by being an MP. He was already in a
career graveyard and personally unpopular, especially with his
colleagues who replaced him with Micheal Howard. IDS has nothing to
risk, the state will, as it has been doing for quarter of a century,
wipe his backside. His earnest preachiness, very Miliband; in the
unlikely event of the Boy Blunder reaching Downing Street the buffoon
IDS may well become an adviser, banging a reformist, modernising
tamborine with Jug Ears Blair; although he comes a damn sight more
expensive.

Engineer
February 20, 2013 at 21:02

May I respectfully suggest that as you consider all our current
politicians to be such craven fools, you get yourself elected to
Parliament and show them how it should be done?

Mark in Mayenne
February 18, 2013 at 11:06

Love it! Gay Mynah bird!

Stephen Davies February 18, 2013 at 11:01

Never again shall Miliband appear on the box that I shall not think ‘Man
Flu’—too memorable and apt a phrase to even bother in future to with the
surmame Miliband, This is much more the clever banter and atmosphere I expect
in the Racoon Arms than yesterday.

Henry Crun February 18, 2013 at 10:49

I hope Deadhead Ed never has the misfortune to meet me. Like his colleague
Ed Bollocks, he had one of those faces you want to punch. Repeatedly.

John
Galt February 18, 2013 at 11:06

I have to concur, indeed it is not the desire to start punching Ed “I
impregnated Marr’s mistress” Bollocks, but the inability to stop.

Chris Morriss
February 18, 2013 at 11:33

I do understand the feeling, but surely Brian Cox has got the
archetypical ‘punchable face’?

John
Galt February 18, 2013 at
11:48

I don’t remember Brian Cox raising my taxes.

Moor Larkin February 18, 2013 at 12:50

Brian Cox is from Dundee and looks as if he’s had his face punched
in more than once, and he’d still kick your arse….
http://www.portroids.com/Y8/Brian%20Cox.jpg

Chris
Morriss February 18, 2013 at
20:04

I don’t see a ‘reply’ to Moor Larkin’s comment below so I’ll use
this one.
I have no idea who the picture you show is. I know there
is another Brian Cox who is an actor, so perhaps it is he. I was
talking about every left-winger’s favourite ‘talking head’ professor.
You know, Tony Blair’s favourite Mancunian, Radio 4′s favourite
physicist.

Or perhaps you are an arts graduate so can’t be expected to
know.

Moor Larkin February 18, 2013 at 22:51

Punching Prof Brian Cox would surely be tantamount to child
abuse.