Murdoch press’s inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband

The Murdoch press has wasted no time peddling inaccuracies and half truths about Labour’s new leader. Other members of the right-wing press have been more responsible with stories about Ed Miliband’s broader appeal.

David-Miliband-Ed-Miliband Today’s Sunday Times headline says ‘Union barons swing victory for Ed Miliband’ while the opening paragraph reads:

“Ed Miliband is ready to give his older brother any job he wants to keep him at the front line after the support of union leaders gave him a wafer-thin victory in the Labour leadership contest.”

The truth, of course, is that individual votes from trade union members – such as teachers, nurses and carers – and members of affiliated organisations including the Fabian Society, Labour Students, Black Asian Minority Ethnic Labour and the Christian Socialist Movement gave Ed Miliband a clear victory in the affiliates section.

Although he narrowly lost the Labour Party membership and MPs/MEPs section of the electoral college, when all votes were counted together, he received 175, 519 votes to 147,220. Block votes distributed by “union barons” were abolished by John Smith in 1993.

The Sunday Times went on to claim:

“During his campaign the new leader called for higher taxes on higher earners, possibly by reducing the threshold for paying the 50p top tax rate, from earnings above £150,000 to earnings over £100,000.”

The claim is a straight falsehood. While Ed Balls did make this suggestion, Ed Miliband said only that the tax should be made “permanent“. David Miliband said that the 50p rate “should certainly stay this Parliament”.

The paper went on to refer to an article penned by Ed Miliband in the Sunday Telegraph which it calls “a clumsy attempt to quash fears he will abandon middle income voters”. The article explained that:

“My aim is to show that our party is on the side of the squeezed middle in our country and everyone who has worked hard and wants to get on. My aim is to return our party to power. This is a tough challenge. It is a long journey. But our party has made the first step in electing a leader from a new generation.”

The “squeezed middle” is a term that has been used recently by John Healey MP, a supporter of Ed Balls, to describe voters earning between £20,000 and £30,000. His memo to the new leader set out the five policies areas that needed addressing as housing, skills, the workplace, childcare and savings support.

But the term was also used by David Miliband supporter Liam Byrne in a speech in May to the Demos think tank where he called for a ‘middle-class task force’ which would look at jobs, taxes and benefits, the minimum wage, welfare reform, skills, higher education, child care, social care, social housing, and pensions.

The Sunday Times article also said “his message was confused by a second article that he penned for The Sunday Mirror in which he emphasised Labour’s identity as the party of the working classes”. The Sunday Mirror article, in which Ed Miliband outlines his ‘vision for Britain’, says:

“It is a great privilege to have been elected leader of the Labour Party… At its best, Labour is the party of the working people of Britain and I am proud to lead it.”

It concludes:

“The Labour Party should be the party of the hardworking majority in this country. We should be the party that stands up for you when you want better education for your children, a fairer deal in our economy or action on crime in your neighbourhood. We were that party once and, under my leadership, we will be again.”

During the campaign Ed Miliband outlined in an article for The Guardian that Labour had to win back both middle earners and working class voters, so addressing both sets of voters in respective articles for The Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Mirror is entirely consistent with this approach.

http://twitter.com/secambslabour/status/25588825165 SE Cambs Labour

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/david_singleton/status/25588869097 David Singleton

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/maccalarena/status/25588968785 Amy MacLaren

And so it starts… RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/elrikmerlin/status/25589026623 Elrik Merlin

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/alecspeaking/status/25589232796 Alec Speight

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/josshands/status/25589282236 Joss Hands

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/danjoness/status/25590236363 Dan Jones

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/goktay/status/25590464808 goktay koraltan

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/antipathy/status/25590704651 Simon

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/dubious1977/status/25591055759 David Dubost

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/winter1610/status/25591640855 Richard Boulter

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/montgomerychris/status/25593273006 Chris Montgomery

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/guppikb/status/25593545241 Guppi Bola

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/9xzulug/status/25593715828 winston k moss

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
Red Ed

Can we mount a legal challenge to these lies.

One rag claimed unions were sending out glossy endorsements of Ed in the same envelope as the ballot paper in direct contravention of the election rules

These lies need to be quashed along with the falsehood gathering momentum that some people were able to vote multiple times.
http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/gf-general-forum/95249-new-labour-leader-3.html#post2465860 New Labour Leader??? – Page 3 – The Liverpool Way

[...] Ed. Well, this is what happens when your party is controlled by outside interests.. I thought this was a decent shake down of the situation. [...]
http://twitter.com/ginwales/status/25596079233 Gordon Gibson

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/jameskennell/status/25597243001 jameskennell

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
torieboy

Block votes distributed by union barons were abolished by John Smith in 1993.
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Yes interesting that left foot forward call them union barons as well.
http://www.order-order.com Guido Fawkes

But Ed does want higher taxes, doesn’t he? How else is he going to pay for all his unfunded spending commitments?
http://www.leftfootforward.org/ Will Straw

Higher taxes such as increasing the bank levy, maybe, but “higher taxes on higher earners” as the Sunday Times claims is plain wrong.
http://twitter.com/rorynatkiel/status/25601945211 Rory Natkiel

Murdoch press’s inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband http://is.gd/fucU3
http://twitter.com/brucerisk/status/25602332468 bruce findlay

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/rykalski/status/25603656331 Wesley Rykalski

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
Brian

torieboy says:
September 26, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Block votes distributed by union barons were abolished by John Smith in 1993.
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Yes interesting that left foot forward call them union barons as well.

I never thought that barons were elected.
http://twitter.com/aliesbati/status/25605617437 Ali Esbati

RT @leftfootfwd Murdoch press’s inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cgjXfw
http://twitter.com/markusblomberg/status/25605829609 Markus Blomberg

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://twitter.com/nymne/status/25606219718 Åsa

RT @aliesbati: RT @leftfootfwd Murdoch press’s inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cgjXfw
http://twitter.com/jackstone36/status/25610893842 Jack Stone

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband http://bit.ly/cgjXfw
http://twitter.com/tess1959/status/25611945593 Teresa

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband: http://bit.ly/cFaWYz
http://www.therewesaidit.co.uk Jonathan da Silva

Not to mention inaccuracies by people who describe him as left wing.

Saddest of all environmentally friendly because he wants 1 less runway in Britain.
http://twitter.com/mediaactivist/status/25641054653 Jay Baker

Murdoch's machine of propaganda is in full effect. http://fb.me/IF7o4sd6
http://twitter.com/cllrkrichards/status/25711877141 Kevin Richards

More mischief by the media and Mudoch – RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband http://bit.ly/cgjXfw
http://ravcasleygera.wordpress.com Rav Casley Gera

In fairness I think the latter is more confusion than lie. The myth that leafy suburban households are the ‘middle’ is just so deep-seated. It’s one thing to use the word ‘middle class’ to describe barristers and surgeons; that has an old meaning of being inbetween the aristocracy and the workers. But to use ‘middle income’ as somehow opposed to ‘working people’ is hilarious in its bizarreness.

I think the phrase ‘squeezed middle’ has been deliberately chosen – rather than simply saying ‘middle class’ or ‘middle income’ – to help avoid this confusion.
http://twitter.com/katebeskow/status/25790982421 Katy Beskow

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/09/murdoch-presss-inaccuracies-and-half-truths-about-ed-miliband/
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/09/red-dead-and-scarlet-right-wing-press-struggle-to-define-ed/ Red, Dead and Scarlet: right-wing press struggle to define Ed | Left Foot Forward

[...] of it during his speech yesterday, the right-wing press are not relenting in their attempts – reported by Left Foot Forward earlier this week – to portray Labour’s new leader as the puppet [...]
http://twitter.com/ramsey_phil/status/26080232427 Phil Ramsey

RT @leftfootfwd: Murdoch press's inaccuracies and half truths about Ed Miliband http://bit.ly/cgjXfw
http://www.mediaactivist.com/blog/?p=12 » Union Barons and Media Barons

[...] the editors of these papers have taken a page from the McCarthy book: they’re calling Miliband “Red Ed,” bolstering their [...]