Poll: Ed-Miliband ‘more convincing’ than Cam


by Sunny Hundal    
October 7, 2010 at 6:45 pm

A poll by ITV ‘This Morning’ programme today found that Ed Miliband “convinced [viewers] the most at the recent party conferences” by a substantial margin.

Ed Miliband was favoured by 58% while David Cameron was picked by just 42%.

The Labour leader today came out in defence of child benefits and said the principle of universality needed to be defended.

All families need support. I am against the changes that the government is making to child benefit. The way they have gone about them has caused huge anxiety, particularly for mums who are staying at home while maybe their husbands are going out to work.

I will look at the changes the government propose on welfare. We do need to get more people into work and I will look sympathetically at some of the changes that they are making. But when it comes to child benefit which has gone to all families for 60 years in this country – it was a legacy of the Second World War – I think it is really important to support families in this country and I think child benefit is a good way of doing it.

Spot on.

Ed Miliband once again apologised for the war in Iraq, saying that we were wrong to go to war.

He also said it was too early to talk about industrial action regarding the John Hutton approach.

I don’t think we should be talking about industrial action. I think it’s very premature to be talking about that, I’m going to look at John Hutton’s report because people want us to deal with this in a responsible way and I think John Hutton is a responsible person. I’m going to look at what he’s got to say.

I’m afraid if we try and divide the country, that somehow the public sector is some sort of drain on the public sector then I’ll think we’ll be making a big mistake. John Hutton said in his report, as I understand it, the average pension for someone in the public sector is £7,000. These are not gold plated fat cats.

(via LabourList) — once again spot on. He is right to make the point that public sector workers aren’t ‘fat cats’ as Cameron pretends, while saying rightly that talking of strike action now is irresponsible.

Also, spot on regarding the economy and the deficit:

I don’t think that David Cameron is right when he says that the deficit is our fault because actually the deficit was caused by the huge banking crisis. You see it around the world. Of course we take responsibility for not regulating the banks properly, of course we should take our responsibility but what I’m trying to do, is to be as honest as possible about what I think we did right – which is quite a lot – and what I think we did wrong. I think that’s the right thing to do.

Watch the interview on video here.


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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. Chris Baldwin

“while saying rightly that talking of strike action now is irresponsible.”

Hmm, I’m not sure he’s right about this.

2. George W. Potter

@Chris, I suggest you read what Hutton said before you jump to an opinion about it. I doubt many people have time to read all 176 pages of it but the gist of it can be found here:

http://www.libdemvoice.org/public-sector-pensions-john-huttons-views-so-far-21502.html

3. Mr Eugenides

“The deficit was caused by the huge banking crisis”?

You what?

4. Steve

@3 – Are you trying to deny there has been a banking crises?

5. Sunny Hundal

@3 – erm not that difficult to figure out.

The banks collapsed, and had to be saved. That pushed up our national debt if they were included as part of the books. The crash also bankrupted a lot of business, more so after when banks stopped lending. Tax revenues contracted massively, and welfare payments went up automatically as people signed up. Ergo, the deficit also expanded and national debt increased.

Which part of that do you disagree with?

6. Tim J

Which part of that do you disagree with?

The bit about the deficits run in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 perhaps? Or was this a retrospective banking crisis?

7. Mycosis

A shockingly biased interview, Schofield is impressing Conservative party PR onto the viewers, reminiscent of Carol Vorderman’s embarrassing turn on Question Time. Kudos to Ed Miliband for wading through that and getting his central messages out to the viewers, now to get on with some policy to back it all up.

8. Chris Paul

should read “drain on the private sector”??

9. Sunny Hundal

Tim J – if you’d like a primer on economics, I’m happy to provide it. None of those deficits spooked the markets, nor were they large enough to worry about. They were very much within what the government could manage and came after the Labour government reduced the national debt to levels (as % of the GDP) lower than the Tories.

As I said – happy to give you a primer on basic economics. :)

10. Tim J

Tim J – if you’d like a primer on economics, I’m happy to provide it.

Thanks for the offer Sunny, but I’ve read your views on economics. The problem with running consistent deficits during boom periods is that Governments then lack the room for fiscal manoevure when the boom turns to bust. You know this presumably? I assume the economics textbooks you’re trying to offload mentioned Keynes.

Alternatively you could read what the Governor of the Bank of England said about the Govt’s fiscal position going in to the recession?


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    Poll: Ed 'more convincing' at conference than Cam http://bit.ly/9aQ85F

  2. sunny hundal

    A poll of ITV viewers finds Ed Miliband "more convincing" at party conference than Cameron http://bit.ly/9aQ85F << with quotes from intvw

  3. Matt Wallace

    RT @sunny_hundal: A poll of ITV viewers finds Ed Miliband "more convincing" at party conference than Cameron http://bit.ly/9aQ85F <&l …

  4. James Mills

    RT @sunny_hundal: A poll of ITV viewers finds Ed Miliband "more convincing" at party conference than Cameron http://bit.ly/9aQ85F <&l …

  5. Chris Horner

    RT @sunny_hundal: A poll of ITV viewers finds Ed Miliband "more convincing" at party conference than Cameron http://bit.ly/9aQ85F <&l …

  6. Hazico_Jo

    RT @sunny_hundal: A poll of ITV viewers finds Ed Miliband "more convincing" at party conference than Cameron http://bit.ly/9aQ85F <&l …

  7. jamesmills1984

    RT @sunny_hundal: A poll of ITV viewers finds Ed Miliband "more convincing" at party conference than Cameron http://bit.ly/9aQ85F << with quotes from intvw

  8. paul andrews

    RT @sunny_hundal: A poll of ITV viewers finds Ed Miliband "more convincing" at party conference than Cameron http://bit.ly/9aQ85F <&l …

  9. Pucci Dellanno

    RT @libcon: Poll: Ed 'more convincing' at conference than Cam http://bit.ly/9aQ85F

  10. pam lorenz

    Poll: Ed-Miliband ‘more convincing’ than Cam | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/QFbFEch via @libcon





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