Ed Miliband Receives Grilling on Jeremy Vine

In brutal interview did Ed hold his nerve?

The interview:
The Previous Government: After a blazing intro Jeremy gave Mr Miliband a chance to blame the past Labour Government and differentiate away from them, to which he defended the past Government. To the argument that they spend to much he said it was wise investment, although not prefect. He said the borrowing was responsible and said he paid off debt.
A caller attacked Mr Miliband first off in a petty manner about his voice then moving on to state the previous Labour government brought the country to its knees saying Labour wasted the governments money. He responded pointing out investments like the NHS to which she responding saying her mother had died of MRSA. Despite the onslaught he kept his cool using rational arguments such as 'for the most part people feel they have a good standard from the NHS' then twisting it to a Conservative jibs like their cuts to the NHS.
Others placed the sole blame for the financial meltdown on him which was also implied by Jeremy, he held off and stuck to the argument that it was not their fault because it was global.
His personality: When a calling with an alternative political view asked Mr Miliband to show some passion and heart in fighting the precent government, he said he would fight harder and picked up on her arguments backing them up, arguments such as 'we will never get playgrounds back'.
He was then accused of being faceless and 'shafting' his brother. He said his and his brother were best to stand against each other and fight fairly rather than back door deals such as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He said that both of them 'had something to say'.
When questioned about not being on his childs birth certificate he put death to such rumours by saying he is now and it was due to not being married to the mother (his partner) and responded to why he was not married by saying he plans to but he did not want to marry for political gain.
Tuition fees: His response to tuition fees to was push forward his graduate tax. He said that the Conservatives were ruining the next generate which he would not. He said he did not join the marches because he had other means of protesting such as in parliament. He also again reached out to the young party by saying he supporting votes for 16 year olds.
Banks: He said he would help the working family by not implementing the VAT and benefit cuts by getting money from elsewhere such as higher bank levies. He offered an interesting solution to bonuses by saying further regulation of banks by making them disclose more information would reduce bank bonuses by letting share holders know more and thus putting them off from paying out. This is an interesting idea, although to me this just seems like shifting pay from bank workers that actually work to shareholders that don't.
War: He supported the Conservative policy on Afganistian and said that it was right because many terrorist bases were around that region.
Religion: When asked to stop faith schools he pointed out that many faith schools pre-date public schools and said most do a good job.
Finally interesting Jeremy was attack for attacking Ed on personal grounds not political, to which Ed responded by asking the caller to explain why he voted Lib Dems rather thus letting Jeremy off the hook.


 My response:
Ed held his nerve, no slips ('bigot') even against deep personal jibes and hard questions. He has some interesting and inventive policies although the idea he is too vague still holds up. Its refreshing to see him agree with some Con-dem policies and just valid defences. I agree that the finical crisis was not labours fault and investment is good, although perhaps running such large deficits is not responsible, its clear to make the destinction that an economy is not like a household and debt if very different to nations.
At very least I can say he is a good politician although  he appears to have developed that catchphrase 'let me just say'.


From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00d4khs - (disappears on 13th of Jan)