Miliband and the squeezed middle classes

Congratualtions to Ed, being voted in by the unions is a worthy way of winning. Despite this endorsement from the working classes, he has started his leadership by vowing to 'defend what he calls the "squeezed" middle class.'

Excusing my un-nuanced approach to social stratification, acknowledging that the middle classes are the easily the most important electoral ground for any party (high turnout and high voter numbers) and understanding that middle class people belong to unions too... this is still a strange statement to make when you've just been voted into leadership by the workers.

I suspect there is something within his message that goes back to the aspirational messages of Blair, the type of message that says we can all be middle class, university types, that will appeal to people. Of course, such a statement is wholly untrue, some people need to do manual jobs, some need to work on the fields, some need to be cleaners - the real message should be that these jobs should be valued far more highly than they are, what could be more important than producing food and keeping the country running?

Finally, Peter Cranie's point about AV will be a fascinating one to watch: "I'm holding back my judgement on Ed Miliband until he makes a call on the AV referendum issue. I'll be astonished if he asks Labour MPs to back the amendment proposed by Caroline Lucas."

NO2ID kicks off in Maidstone

Attended the inaugural meeting of Maidstone NO2ID last night, a great meeting with about seven people plus the regional coordinator. It is great to see a campaign group in Maidstone that is not focussing on a NIMBY issue (not that I have any problem with locally focussed campaigns, just that other campaigns seem very light on the ground here). The timing is interesting with the home office losing another data stick with 84,000 confidential records on it yesterday.

A lot of good ideas about street stalls and how to engage with the public were discussed, although I did get rather heated after the hearing about what a wonderful champion of civil liberties David Davis is (check out his stance on the death penalty, LGBT issues, 28 day detention etc.).

Of course the Tories are full of ordinary people like him, championing our rights. Ordinary people like Boris Johnson, the 8 greats grandson of George II. Personally, I find it very difficult to relate to these Old-Etonians. I grew upmostly in the Medway Towns (with about 3 years in Maidstone). The people in Medway are great, down to earth, dealing with the same issues that we all deal with. I certainly didn't grow up knowing anyone from a privilidged background. (Hmm... classist rant now over).