The vice-chair of Labour's general election campaign, Lucy Powell, has denied suggesting Ed Miliband could break his election pledges.
At the weekend, the Labour leader unveiled a stone tablet with the party's key pledges chiselled into it.
Asked on BBC 5 live if carving them in stone made them more believable, Ms Powell said: "I don't think anyone is suggesting that the fact that he's carved them into stone means that he is absolutely not going to break them or anything like that."
She went on to say Mr Miliband "stands by his promises". Adding: "It was just another way of highlighting that, which is that he's a guy of principle, of decency, a guy who is tough and he is going to deliver on his promises he set out, unlike some of this opponents."Is that a plausible denial? The BBC would say yes, but then they are hoping for a Labour election victory.
"Our pledges are carved in stone"
“I don’t think anyone is suggesting that the fact that he’s carved them into stone means, you know, means that he will absolutely, you know, not going to break them or anything like that.”Listen here at Guido Fawkes
A future Labour Government is committed to outlaw the scourge of Islamophobia by changing the law and making it an aggravated crime.More at The Muslim News
'Gordon Brown is as fundamentally dishonest as Tony Blair was and his behaviour over the EU Treaty is nothing short of disgusting. Gordon Brown was part of the team that wrote the last Labour manifesto, you remember the one that promised a referendum on the EU Constitution. Yes I do realise that that was only promised to draw any advantage that might accrue to the Conservatives if they promised a referendum. Then Gordon Brown reneged on this promise by claiming that the Treaty was not the same as the Constitution. He and other Labour politicians love to quote Angela Merkel when she said that the Constitutional process had been abandoned. It has, but that does not matter a bean as all that was abandoned was the process of rep;lacing all the existing European Treaties with a new Constitution. This process has been replaced with a new amending treaty that moves us to the same place as we would have been with the Constitution but by amending the existing treaties instead. As Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the architect of the abandoned European Constitution, admittedNote that Ed Miliband wouldn't answer whether he'd read the Treaty, I think it's pretty obvious why.
"Looking at the content, the result is that the institutional proposals of the constitutional treaty….are found complete in the Lisbon Treaty, only in a different order and inserted in former treaties.." He made clear that the purpose of the rewritten Treaty was to make people think the new version did not merit being put to the people in referendums. "Above all, it is to avoid having referendums thanks to the fact that the articles are spread out and constitutional vocabulary has been removed," he added.
An Angela Merkel quote that the Labour liars refer to less often comes from her speech in June 2007 to the European Parliament and runs "The substance of the Constitution is preserved, that is a fact". '
'Ed Miliband thinks that the strikes are wrong at a time when negotiations are still underway. The government has acted in a reckless and provocative manner, but it is time for both sides to set aside the rhetoric and get around the negotiating table and stop this from happening again.
I know this because he told me six times. His PR must have known that was what he was going to do. And yet he still went through a convincing charade of pressing me on my line of interrogation, urging me to keep my questions brief, and even – this was a macabre touch – placing a voice recorder on the table beside me as a kind of warning not to try and misquote his boss.
As it turned out, the first take was drowned out by a passing siren on the Embankment, but seemed like a thoughtful and precise position for a Labour leader to take. Clear in his condemnation, hopeful of a negotiated settlement. Not partisan, but engaged. Detached, but not aloof.
The second time it seemed like a less original statement. The strikes are wrong… the rhetoric has gone too far… parents across the country…But then, I’d heard it before and it was useful to have a clean version, unspoiled by a siren.
The third time… the third time I was struggling a little bit. I’d asked him how his opposition to the strikes fitted with his position as leader of the Labour movement. I thought it was quite a clever question. Silly me. The strikes were wrong at a time when negotiations were still underway. The government had acted recklessly. It was time for rhetoric to be set aside.
Some reporters like to have their questions written on a piece of paper, and tick them off one by one as they are asked. It’s something I’ve never done, but at this moment I wished fervently that I had a piece of paper in my hand, just to give me something to look at, and scratch away thoughtfully just buy some time.
I asked another question. Something about Francis Maude, and his tone of conciliation. Not very good, I know, but the best I could manage. Get him to say something about Francis Maude, I was thinking… his hairstyle, his glasses, the way he peers over the top of them as he drones on, anything, just stop already with the strikes are wrong while negotiations are underway, and the rhetoric has got out of hand…
I’m not sure what I asked next. Frankly I was in danger of losing it. On my own, with the eyes of Ed Miliband and his three handlers boring into me but apparently oblivious of my presence, I was getting twinges of what I can only describe as existential doubt. So I said some words. And Ed told me that the strikes were wrong, and the rhetoric was out of hand, and both sides needed to sit down…
That was the worst one, I think.
If news reporters and cameras are only there to be used by politicians as recording devices for their scripted soundbites, at best that is a professional discourtesy. At worst, if we are not allowed to explore and examine a politician’s views, then politicians cease to be accountable in the most obvious way. So the fact that the unedited interview has found its way onto YouTube in all its absurdity, to be laughed at along with all the clips of cats falling off sofas, is perfectly proper.
Afterwards, I was overcome with a feeling of shame. I couldn’t look him in the eye.
But before I dried up completely, and had to be led out of Westminster with my mouth opening and shutting, I had an opportunity to ask one last question. I had an urge to say something so stupid, so flippant that he would either have to answer it, or get up and leave. `What is the world’s fastest fish?’ `Can your dog do tricks?’ `Which is your favourite dinosaur?’ But, of course, this was a pool interview, and I had no wish to feed out the end of my television career to Sky and the BBC.
I realise now, of course, the perfect question to ask, to embarrass him and to keep my job. I should have asked was whether the strikes were wrong, whether the rhetoric had got out of hand, and whether it was time for both sides to get round the negotiating table before it happened again.
Because that was the only answer I ever got.'It sounds as though Damon Green has had an epiphany about Ed Miliband.
'Ed Miliband was in a relationship with a senior BBC economics journalist while working at the Treasury, it has emerged after his wife admitted being "furious" about the "secret" romance.The BBC of course won't confirm or deny the story:
Mr Miliband was still seeing Stephanie Flanders, who at the time covered economics for BBC Newsnight, until as late as March 2004, years later than previously thought.
At the time he was a special adviser to Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.'
'A BBC spokesman declined to say if Miss Flanders had informed the corporation at the time of her relationship with Mr Miliband, saying: "We wouldn't comment on former staff members personnel details."'The BBC acts as the Labour Party's propaganda arm, and there's not much we can do about it.
'1997 documentary reveals how Ed Balls and Ed Miliband helped Brown redraw banking regulations, despite Treasury fears and Bank of England protestsEd Balls boasted of over-ruling the Bank of England as Gordon Brown stripped it of the power to regulate the City, a newly-uncovered film reveals.The act that some economic experts argue contributed to the financial crisis was captured by a documentary film crew.Gordon Brown's economic adviser is seen telling a senior journalist that the Bank strongly objected to the plan to hive off regulation of the finance industry to a new watchdog – but they had no "choice" over the decision.The then-30 year old is later seen jubilant after the BBC's John Sergeant gave positive coverage of the move to create the Financial Services Authority, telling Mr Brown: "Sergeant bought the whole bloody lot."'
'Two Eds hid truth about global crash: Miliband and Balls knew UK economy was due to 'fall off a cliff' a year before it happened... but kept it a secretThe pair reportedly urged Gordon Brown to call a snap election in 2008Knew it was only way Labour could hold power once economy crumbled George Osborne said revelation 'exposed cynicism' of Balls and MilibandLabour leader has not denied claim, dismissing it as 'ancient history'The claim appears in explosive new memoir of Martin Winter - who helped turn Miliband into an MP
Ed Miliband and Ed Balls knew about the economic crash of 2008 a year before it happened – but kept it secret, it was sensationally revealed last night.The Labour leader did not deny an explosive new report that they both urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to call a snap Election in 2007 because 'the economy was about to fall off a cliff' and it was Labour's only hope of holding on to power.Chancellor George Osborne said the revelation 'exposed the cynicism' of Balls and Miliband, adding: 'They were more interested in saving their own skins than saving the British economy.'The disclosure comes in a new book by Miliband's former ally and friend Martin Winter, the ex-Labour Mayor of Doncaster, where Miliband is an MP. Winter, who secured the seat for Miliband at Brown's personal request, says he has decided to speak out because he has lost faith in the Labour leader....Last night Miliband made no attempt to deny the claim, dismissing it as 'ancient history' – but the revelation is potentially political dynamite as the Election campaign hots up, fuelling the Tory line that Labour cannot be trusted with the economy, or to tell the truth... '
