They Blog For You

So David Miliband would pose the greatest threat to the Tories?   How convenient for DM that this alleged private remark of David Cameron’s has hit the headlines, via an unidentified ‘well-placed source’,  just 4 days before voting starts for the Labour leadership.   It is of course the oldest trick in the political book, ever since the children’s story of Brer Rabbit and the Fox and the briar bush, to pretend when one is under threat that the one thing the political enemy fears most is X (in this case a vote for DM) in order to get gullible supporters to do precisely that, only then to find that it was just a ruse for DM to escape the threat of losing.

But even if Cameron did make the remark attributed to him (which is highly unlikely) – that DM stood the best chance of reaching out to middle Britain – the comment is off the mark.   Who is now the middle class anyway?   There is a serious misperception that it reflects people like teachers, managers, doctors, architects, surveyors, stockbrokers.   These are largely in the £50,000-£100,000-plus income bracket.   But the average wage in Britain today is £24,000.   Half the population is below £460 a week gross, with one tenth of the population (6 million people) living on less than £310 a week.

Middle Britain is at a far lower income level than the politicians and the media like to represent.   They are far more concerned with making ends meet in a climate of austerity, where the deep cuts being imposed haven’t even started yet to bite, than the lofty aspirational images of Blairite propaganda would have us believe.

The real truth is that DM offers nothing to struggling families on whom the insecurity of their jobs, incomes and housing is now starting to impact.   EM by contrast has shown a real readiness to confront the causes of this massive breakdown and deal with the nitty-gritty of the issues that are really hurting people.   The illusion now being pumped out by the black propaganda arts of the Blairite machine, with its huge business finance backing, that DM can reach these problems like a political Heineken when other candidates can’t is a measure of the desperation of the DM camp.