22nd December, 2010
On 10 December, Ed Balls sent out a link on twitter to an article he’d written about the LibDems serving as a fig-leaf to a radical right-wing government. Quite right too.
I responded, “@edballsmp Good piece; now pls translate that into action. New PLP rule: don’t mention the LibDems?”
Nine days later:
Ed Miliband has banned the shadow cabinet from using the word “coalition” to describe the government because it sounds too moderate and reasonable, and fails to convey what he says is its true “ideological, rightwing agenda”.
In a memo to his front-bench team, obtained by the Observer, the Labour leader’s director of policy, Greg Beales, says that from now on they must use the term “Conservative-led government” to describe the alliance of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
(The Observer, 19 Dec 2010)
Thanks guys. I’m sure you had that idea independently, but I am happy anyway. I’ve been arguing for ages that the language of the er, Conservative-led government, has been brilliantly controlled and effective.
Labour must respond in kind.