Did you know that Miliband was going to hold a referendum on Europe?

If not you can’t have been listening to the BBC who trumpeted this apparent fact all day yesterday.

 

There does seem to be some confusion even amongst BBC journos about the meaning of Miliband’s little pledge.

 

John Pienaar, surprisingly perhaps,  drew a deep breath and actually criticised Miliband, saying that the….

‘Ed Miliband promise is extraordinarily tangled and is not meant to mean what it seems to mean’.

He later went on to say that Miliband’s plan was ‘incoherent’.

 

Contrast that with Nick Robinson who seems to lean ever more Labourwards these days:

Labour and Europe – is that clear now?

Robinson tells us that the message Miliband wants to get over is:

A message of reassurance to big business that a future Labour government will, unlike the Tories, not put Britain’s EU membership at risk.

At the same time, a message of reassurance to the wider electorate that no further powers will be given to Brussels without them getting a say in a referendum.

 

Is it though? That all sounds a bit pat and thought out.  Isn’t the message purely one that Miliband wants to stay in Europe and has taken it upon himself to make that decision….by himself….dodging the inconvenient problem of allowing the ‘People’ to have their democratic say on this weighty matter.

Miliband wants his cake and to eat it….stay in Europe but also give the diminishing hope of that long promised referendum that so many people want…..and thereby maybe win over a few gullible voters.

 

Robinson tells us that:

The result is nuanced and will be torn into by the Tories and their friends in the press who will claim there is now a simple choice between those who will guarantee you an in/out vote and those who won’t.

 

‘Nuanced’?  No it’s not, its quite clear as said….Miliband, the millionaire elitist, has decided the people get no vote.

As for the ‘Tories and their friends in the press’ comment…guess we know where Robinson is coming from here…..the tone of that suggesting any criticism of Miliband is ill-founded based on political prejudice rather than the fact Miliband has made a huge error….as Labour man Dan Hodges [Tory friend in the Press?] admits:

 

Ed Miliband hasn’t shown strength over Europe. He’s lost control of the narrative

Yesterday, watching Ed Miliband’s shambolic Euro referendum announcement, it finally occurred to me. Labour has no narrative. Or rather, it has no coherent narrative. And the elements of a narrative it does have bear absolutely no relation to reality.

Labour has no clarity of vision. That’s why there’s no settled narrative. There’s nothing to build a narrative around.

“We’re still just casting about,” one Labour MP fold me yesterday. “Cost of Living’s been tried and dumped. The Squeezed Middle’s been tried and dumped. Watch. There’s going to be a bit on child care and a bit on housing and then he’s going to run back to health. And when the Labour leader circles the wagons around the NHS you know the game’s up.”

 

Robinson was clearly reading the runes wrong and then he rounds off with this:

[Miliband] will invite voters to choose between a government led by David Cameron which he’ll claim would be obsessed with Europe and riven by splits over it and one led by him which would focus on what most people care about more – the economy, living standards and the NHS.

 

Odd how any BBC analysis always manages slip in critical comments about the Tories (obsessed with Europe…riven by splits) whilst Labour is associated with the good stuff….NHS, building the economy (ha ha ha) and living standards.