Exclusive: Ed Miliband: My vision for Labour

Our guest writer is Ed Miliband, Labour Party leadership candidate

I wanted to write to tell Left Foot Forward readers about the speech I made earlier today to an audience of Labour activists that sets out the choice that the party faces about the changes that we need to make. Labour must have the courage to change, the confidence to know that our values, when applied to the challenges of Britain in the modern world, can reconnect with those who have turned their backs on New Labour.

Ed-Miliband-vision So I am directly asking Labour members to give me a mandate to carry out the fundamental changes that we need to make, in order to take Labour back into power. Only if the party changes can we win again and then go on to make the changes that the people of this country are relying upon us to make.

There comes a time in every election when a choice has to be made – and in this Labour leadership election, we are now approaching that time. The question for us in this contest is: can we have the courage to recognise the scale of the change needed after one defeat, not after four as we had to do after 1992.

I believe that we must choose change. Ideologically. Electorally. Organisationally.

New Labour: right for its time – but it was formed sixteen years ago and now we need to move on. Traditional New Labour solutions won’t work, and that is why I am the modernising candidate in this election. Today, I believe that we need nothing less than a refounding of the Labour Party. We must be the party of labour: I believe in the dignity of work, which is why the living wage is central to my campaign.

We must be the party of equality: I believe this society is too unequal and it didn’t just harm the poor which is why I am for a high pay commission to curb excess at the top; we must be the party of aspiration: I believe that millions of people are locked out of opportunity, which is why I am not for a market in higher education but a graduate tax; we must be the party of family: I believe that we shouldn’t be working the longest hours in Western Europe, which is why I am for flexible working for all; we must be the party of the environment: I believe that climate change is the biggest threat our country faces which is why it must be central to everything we do.

And yes, the we must be the party of liberty, as we were when we were founded in 1900: defending individual rights and freedoms. These are my values. This is what I believe. Once we throw off the shackles of the past, all this becomes possible.

I am asking for a mandate to change the party and take us on this next stage of our journey. I am the candidate in this contest who has recognised the scale of change we need in our party so that we can deliver the change we need in our country.

http://twitter.com/johnrentoul/status/22274136428 John Rentoul

RT @hopisen: RT @leftfootfwd: Exclusive: Ed Miliband: My vision for Labour http://bit.ly/amTnLU > Hilariously, this take you to a Pag …
http://twitter.com/johnrentoul/status/22274136428 John Rentoul

RT @hopisen: RT @leftfootfwd: Exclusive: Ed Miliband: My vision for Labour http://bit.ly/amTnLU > Hilariously, this take you to a Pag …
http://twitter.com/philipjcowley/status/22274221181 Philip Cowley

RT @leftfootfwd: Exclusive: Ed Miliband: My vision for Labour http://bit.ly/amTnLU > Hilariously, this take you to a Page not found error!
http://twitter.com/alexwalters/status/22275898873 Alex Walters

RT @hopisen: RT @leftfootfwd: Exclusive: Ed Miliband: My vision for Labour http://bit.ly/amTnLU > Hilariously, this take you to a Pag …
http://twitter.com/alexsmith1982/status/22276668694 alexsmith1982

RT @shamikdas: Labour leadership candidate @Ed_Miliband writes exclusively for @leftfootfwd on his vision for Labour: http://bit.ly/amTnLU
http://twitter.com/paulduxbury/status/22277026089 Paul Duxbury

Great article by @Ed_Miliband a clear focus & Vision not about pandering to this group or that group but a Vision http://tinyurl.com/3xj2xa4
http://twitter.com/justingreaves/status/22277350215 Justin Greaves

RT @philipjcowley: RT @leftfootfwd: Exclusive: Ed Miliband: My vision for Labour http://bit.ly/amTnLU > Hilariously, this take you to …
http://twitter.com/tommilleruk/status/22273681669 Tom Miller

RT @leftfootfwd: New post: Exclusive: Ed Miliband: My vision for Labour http://bit.ly/amTnLU
http://twitter.com/openuniversally/status/22273822408 Tom Corfield

RT @leftfootfwd: New post: Exclusive: Ed Miliband: My vision for Labour http://bit.ly/amTnLU
http://twitter.com/hopisen/status/22273988965 Hopi Sen

RT @leftfootfwd: Exclusive: Ed Miliband: My vision for Labour http://bit.ly/amTnLU > Hilariously, this take you to a Page not found error!
http://twitter.com/andy_s_64/status/22279051186 Andy Sutherland

RT @leftfootfwd: New post: Exclusive: Ed Miliband: My vision for Labour http://bit.ly/amTnLU
daniel Mayhew

Sorry ed but your future sound very much like old labour stuck in a loosing streak
http://twitter.com/shamikdas/status/22275489286 Shamik Das

Labour leadership candidate @Ed_Miliband writes exclusively for @leftfootfwd on his vision for Labour: http://bit.ly/amTnLU
http://twitter.com/paulduxbury/status/22276991127 Paul Duxbury

RT @alexsmith1982: Labour leader candidate @Ed_Miliband writes exclusively for @leftfootfwd on his vision for Labour: http://bit.ly/amTnLU
Mike

Sounds more like spin to me. We went to the right in 1997 to get your vote now we will swing to the left!
http://twitter.com/dominiccampbell/status/22277240880 Dominic Campbell

RT @PaulDuxbury: RT @alexsmith1982: Labour leader candidate @Ed_Miliband writes exclusively for @leftfootfwd on his vision for Labour: http://bit.ly/amTnLU
Chris

Ed is the change candidate in this election, we need to be less timid about our values. We shouldn’t be letting the proto-tories in the LibDem party sound more progressive than us, we should let the LibCon narrative of Labour’s record take root.

I believe Ed Miliband has the drive, ambition and passion to take the fight to the LibCons. He loathes the tory plans for public services, he knows that if allowed to stay in until 2015 the coalition will have wrecked anything and everything decent in this country.

I’m voting for Ed Miliband!!!
http://twitter.com/kenny_young/status/22289741142 Kenny Young

RT @leftfootfwd: Exclusive: Ed Miliband: My vision for Labour http://bit.ly/amTnLU < Good to directly ask members for mandate for change
http://twitter.com/kenny_young/status/22290319597 Kenny Young

wth @ed_miliband at Q&A with members in Hastings. At least 150 ppl. Grt to do it off the back of this – @leftfootfwd http://bit.ly/amTnLU
http://twitter.com/edmteam/status/22290906559 Ed Miliband Team

RT @Kenny_young: w. @ed_miliband at Q&A w. members in Hastings. At least 150 ppl. Grt to do off back of @leftfootfwd http://bit.ly/amTnLU
Ash

People who think Ed Miliband is unelectably ‘Old Labour’ because of his focus on inequality – the way he talks about excess at the top, a Living Wage, being on the side of ordinary working people, keeping the 50p tax rate etc. – seem to me to be stuck in the 90s.

As Ed points out, New Labour was made for those times – post-Thatcher, inequality wasn’t making headlines and people were generally suspicious of leftie calls to curb excess or regulate markets.

But as of right now – fifteen years on and post-credit crunch – the picture is completely different. Issues of equality and fairness are firmly back on the agenda – we have the Coalition publishing distributional analyses of their budget, and people arguing on the Six O’clock News over whether this or that measure is ‘progressive’ or ‘regressive’. There’s near-universal anger at the greed and excesses of bankers etc., near-universal understanding that a hands-off approach to markets was partly to blame for the pickle we’re now in, near-universal acceptance that taxes need to rise, and near-universal acknowledgement that we need to rebalance the economy towards regional manufacturing and away from London-centric financial services.

So I’m with Ed rather than David on this one: it’s the New Labour comfort zone we need to be wary of, not the comfort zone of traditional Labour values. This is precisely the right time to be challenging free-market dogma, calling for the rich to pay a fairer share, talking about defending manufacturing industry, etc.
Anon E Mouse

Ash – Personally I think that his brother looks more statesman like but this country needs a political party that is left leaning – especially since the Lib Dem’s are in coalition with the Tories.

I wish it was Abbott but I’m glad to see a Labour candidate that is offering the electorate a choice.

I wouldn’t vote Labour again at the moment but this does make the political landscape more interesting…

(Agree with you on manufacturing as well – we have really struggled through this credit crunch with no help from the banks)