'Red Ed'?

For those who didn’t know, Ed Miliband won the Labour leadership contest and is now Leader of the Labour Party. He delivered his first speech as the Leader of the Labour Party this afternoon and it wasn’t bad at all.
Although I thought his speech was satisfactory, it was filled with maturity, equality and fairness. He spoke about key issues that tainted Labour’s prospect of winning the chance to form the government earlier this summer. The lack of real control on globalisation and the subsequent influx of immigrants, the failure to regulate the banks when they needed to were two of a few issues looked upon as failure.
However what moved me was the fact that he spoke about the deep social inequality present in our community. He spoke about the need of Trade Unions to protect workers right which cannot be advocated for successfully on an individual basis. ‘‘Yes!’’ to the Alternative voting system which is fairer and more representative than the current one. He expressed that ‘’the gap between the rich and poor does matter’’ and it does indeed.
It was pretty clear that his foreign policies will not be subject favouritism and condemned Israel failure to recognise the ‘Palestinians’ right to statehood’. He branded the Iraq war as ‘’wrong’’ although he did comprehend the difficult dilemma Tony Blair faced.
The only question that has been left pondering in my head is; will the Labour Party be united under Ed Miliband? I simply do not know. But it will definitely be interesting to see how he deals with the Blairites, Brownites and every other ‘ites’ in between.
Now that Labour has a leader, the battle of the parties during ‘Prime Minister’s Question Time’ and other political debates will certainly be something to look forward to.
Luziane - YMN coordinator