Ed Miliband is the leader of the opposition in the UK. He's kept a low profile for the balance of his tenure at the helm of the Labour party, derided in the pages of Private Eye as Mr Milibean (a parody of a hapless Mr Bean), called 'Red Ed' by the tabloids or otherwise generally ignored. but in recent weeks and days a rather different Ed has emerged. Mad Miliband.
He's has publicly called out the hitherto untouchable Rupert Murdoch and is now locked in a death Match with News Corp. Only one antagonist will survive. This is quite literally the political equivalent of the Thunderdome Law: "Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves". Either Rupert Murdoch is stripped of his assets or Miliband is finished politically.
No Labour party leader, since perhaps Michael Foot, felt secure enough at their flanks to take on BSkyB, The Times, The Sun and News of The World (along with the Troygraph and Daily Mail) . It got worse though: Tony Blair was in cahoots with Murdoch and Gordon Brown was a target for bin diving hackers. Brown has returned to condemn News Corp in an emotional BBC interview, detailing how the hacks stole medical records about his disabled child. Blair in his weasel mode has remained largely silent, revealing the fault line between a compromised New labour PM and a more Old Labour style PM.
Here are some links about Miliband:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
The family of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler today called for the independent inquiries ordered by the prime minister into the press and phone hacking to include politicians' links with the media and how those relationships may have fermented a culture in which journalists intruded into people's lives.Following a meeting with the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, the Dowler's lawyer, Mark Lewis, said the family had been forced to "wash their dirty linen in public" and now politicians should do the same. Lewis said that Dowler's parents, Sally and Bob, and her sister Gemma had urged Miliband to be "fearless" and to "stand up to the press".
Dowler's hacked phone was the epicenter of the scandal.
Here a Tory paper actually laud his new found biblical role:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...
The political parable for this week is Ed and Goliath, in which the stripling warrior takes on the Philistine giant. Having lobbed pebbles in Rupert Murdoch’s direction, the Labour leader, who has wrong-footed David Cameron at every turn, hopes to move in for the kill.
And here Labour insiders consider the bravery or recklessness of taking on Murdoch:
http://labour-uncut.co.uk/...
But there are two kinds of brave. Brave, as in putting yourself on the line, making yourself a target for the greater good. Ghandi brave. Martin Luther King brave. And there is the other kind of brave: let’s call it Yes Minister brave. As in Sir Humphrey’s immortal “that would be a brave decision, Minister”, that is, reckless without meaning to be.
Now that Ed Miliband has made this move I urge Kossacks to send notes of support to Miliband and other backup (be imaginative!) where ever possible because if he keeps on fighting and ends up winning in Parliament: Fox News, WSJ, New York Post may end up disappearing along with Murdoch.
Here are the Fighters:
Since Murdoch became a British newspaper owner in the Sixties, Labour has never won a General Election without his endorsement. Labour winces at the images of Tony Blair flying down to Australia to seek endorsement. But he did it because he needed to. Miliband has completely broken with this legacy.
Miliband has not just burned bridges with the Murdochs. He has blasted, rocketed and then nuked them. He had better hope that Mr Murdoch is indeed finished. If he is not, so are Mr Miliband's hopes of reaching Number Ten.
The second fighter Rupert Murdoch. An adept fighter, snatching the News of the World from under Robert Maxwell's nose, taking on the hitherto undefeated print unions in the midnight switch of operations from Fleet Street to Wapping, setting up Sky and sticking with its huge losses when the City were convinced he would fail.
You know who you need to support here. And you know what to do:
http://www.facebook.com/...