Labour Leader Ed Miliband admitted this week that he does not “read much British news”.
“It’s always a good idea not to read the papers,” he said, while criticizing the right-wing press for its “incoherent” attacks on him.
In a Buzzfeed interview, he dismissed articles claiming that he was “weird” simply as attempts by hostile sections of the media to derail his bid to win the general election.
Ed revealed that since he became the Labour leader, he has made it a rule not to pay any heed to the press, and that he doesn’t even have newspapers delivered to his own home.
Instead, Ed reads the American news aggregator RealClearPolitics, and steers clear of Twitter as much as possible.
Emphasizing the importance of “following your own path”, he has no TV screens showing rolling 24-hour news channels in his office and instead relies on his aides to summarise current affairs, according to the website.
Telling Buzzfeed that he didn’t read the British press, he said: “You get a lot of advice in the newspapers about what you should, and shouldn’t do.
“It’s much more important to follow, and stick to, your own path. I’ve made that a rule in the last three and a half years.”
But despite his apparent ‘British press blackout’ Ed still found the time to criticize the right-wing newspapers who relentlessly attack his leadership.
He said: “Think about the attacks my opponents have been making on me, there’s a certain incoherence about their attacks. First of all, they said I was ‘Red Ed’, then they said I was weak, then they said it was back to the 1970s, and now it’s something else.
“Frankly they were saying that (I was weird). The press people who don’t like us have been saying that for some time.
“It comes with the territory. I think the heart of this is people think we are in a position to win the election and there are some people who just don’t want us to win this election.”
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If those comments also refer to the regional press, then Ed Miliband is even more hopeless than I thought. Any politician worth their salt doesn’t have a choice – they work for the public, and have a duty to keep up to speed with what is going on, and I’m afraid that means reading the British press at all levels in all its glory. I don’t believe him, anyway. Rather like actors always denying that they read reviews of their performances. Yeah, right…
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I read this article because the headline gives the impression that the old and hackneyed nickname “Red Ed” has a new significance and is therefore a legitimate label to stick on a story about Labour leader Ed Miliband. On reading the story, though, I discovered there is no such thing, and the only mention of “Red Ed” is in a throwaway remark buried way down in the copy. This follows a story you ran last week about a journalist starting a job on “the socialist Morning Star”. Presumably “socialist” was added to illustrate the paper has a political agenda and to draw the attention of your readers to the fact that agenda is left wing.
I see no references in your stories to the “former fascist Daily Mail”, the “right-wing Daily Express” and the “ultra-conservative Daily Telegraph”. So if you are going to assign political labels to publications, and use outdated political nicknames in headlines, can you please use a degree of consistency and label all the publications and use all the nicknames? Or better still, steer clear of the lot.
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That’s not necessarily wise, Ed. You should read your local & constituency paper to find out what’s going on locally, in the area for which you are the people’s representative (!). No US aggregator is going to read those, is it? You should read the comment pages of the heavies, because most of them really are trying to help by their own lights. And if you must use an aggregator, can’t you find a British one? I find the idea of our next PM getting all his news with a US slant alarming!
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What Miliband’s critics mean to say when they describe him as “weird” is that he is too Jewish in appearance and outlook for the average white working class British voter, only they are too frightened to write that because of all the sexism, ageism, racism, etc laws in our free speech society.
Even our extreme right wing national newspapers will take a couple of steps back before using such a description.
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Ed… we know you aren’t interested in what you can do for Britain, just what you can get out of us, truly an excellent example of the great benefit that immigration into Britain has to offer… why not do us all a favour and go and live in America…
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Hang on….why does anyone with a brain read 90 per cent of the British press? Just look at the headline on this piece, written supposedly by journalists, for journalists: “Red Ed”. Lazy, old hat, worthless crap. Unworthy in every way. Depressing.
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What is the point of him reading the papers? Murdoch and co only write complete rubbish about him anyway. They have an agenda and stick to steadfastly to it.
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How long has it been “criticize”? I thought it was “criticise”… or have we gone all American now?
I bet there’s a really good anagram of Ed Miliband, if only I could be bothered to work it out.
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Alen, thanks. A good comment. The rest of you are nincompoops. Are you professional journalists? Wake up, please!
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You should check out the American website Ed like to read – http://realclearpolitics.com/ . If you do you’ll understand why he is so out of touch, it’s all very clever but meaningless to anyone in the UK.
Anyway, the Labour party voted for the wrong Miliband- they should have voted for Glen. They probably weren’t “In The Mood”.
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The lazy headline on this article kind of proved his point, unfortunately.
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Hey Scribbler, I have just worked out that an anagram of Ed Miliband in media blind.
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Well said, Alen McFadzean, you took the words right out of my mouth.
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That should say is media blind – not in media blind.
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Well done, HTFP, for changing the “Red Ed” headline and intro. Credit where it’s due.
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No worries wolverwanderer, The headline was not appropriate for this website and the comments about it were in my view entirely justified. Paul Linford, Publisher.
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