So after years of labour calling all the sane people amongst us little Englanders and racists Ed reckons we will all believe the lepeod has changed it's spots.
Well I think he also needs to look at some of the die hard labour supporters, especially on here. I dont think they agree with him.
Will Middle England be swayed by Ed's 'words'. Will they beleive him any more than they 'believe' Dave will actually give them an in/out election?
No. That has been Labour's line all along, nothing has changed.
The difference is, Labour know that under current EU rules we have to let Eurpeans in, so they don't promise what cannot be delivered.
The Tories pretend to be able to cut immigration to the tens of thousands instead of the hundreds of thousands, but they are lying.
The public know that now, which is why UKIP are beating Tory candidate in by elections - the public no longer trust the Conservatives on immigration.
Well I remember the Noo labour times and the continual use of the word racist to slam down anyone disagreeing with New Labours great multi cultural experiment we are now all stuck with.
Yes Gromit, that is a massive problem of EU membership hence why we need to get out.
Like I say, people dont trust DC, my question here is will they trust Ed?
To accuse Ed of saying anything to get votes is rich, coming from a supporter of a party which has made twenty or more U-turns during it's current tenure, swayed by public opinion against political dogma.
I would suggest that no-one who understands the meaning of the word racism would suggest that it is racist to discuss immigration.
The problem arises when people start talking about Muslims, for eaxmple, or Pakistanis, as an homogenous group with the same characteristics and behaviour - negative of course.
Immigration applies to anyone from outside the Uk who wishes to live and work here - but the media regularly hi-jacks the concept, and dripfeeds fear and poison into the minds of the populace.
So well done Ed - stating the bleedin' obvious once again - but it stil won;t get you elected.
The official Labour party line may be that it's not racist to discuss immigration, but there are plenty of it's members and supporters who think that it is - or more accurately perhaps, tell people that it is, just to shut them up.
Exhibit A : ex head of party himself Gordon Brown, and his famous 'bigoted woman' incident.
As a matter of interest, Canary, I gave up counting the coalition's u-turns when they exceeded forty, never mind twenty! Cameron has had to make so many u turns that all he needs now is a tall Sufi hat and a voluminous skirt to qualify as a fully trained Whirling Dervish!
Click http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9617519/37-coalition-climbdowns-u-turns-and-row-backs.html for an article - from the Torygraph of all places! - listing 37 of them. Please note that it was published in October 2012, so there have been a further two years of these to take into account!
QM, if you and Canary wish to debate Tory U-turns please raise your own thread. I am sure we will all join in. It is very impolite to use someone else s for your own agenda and not even bother replying to the OP.
YMB, the title of your OP is so far beyond dispute that I did not feel it was even necessary to respond to it at all. As regards the only actual questions in the body of your post, they dealt with the future..."will" this, that and the other... and, consequently, I am in no actual position to answer them and nor is anyone else!
As well you know a debate or discussion can be had on what can/may happen as well as what has happened. Others have managed and I know you are not stupid.
If you really cannot answer the question ignore the post. It is still rude to hijack it for your own agenda if you dont understand the question. Raise your own it is quite simple.
OK, I'll keep you happy and say, "I've no blessed idea!"
Incidentally, YOU were the one that raised a point about what Labour had said in the past...(quote) "after years of labour calling all the sane people amongst us little Englanders". As a result, I can see no reason why Canary and I should have to remain silent on what the Coalition has said and done in the past. Can you?
Gordon Brown famously called that Lady (in Middleton I think) who wanted to talk about immigration a bigot. But he was widely pilloried for it bceause she wasn't being racist, she was raising a genuine concern. But Gordon Brown was out of touch and a dinosaur.
Labour have been discussing ways to halt unwanted immagration for a decade, since all the eastern Europeans came on mass. Miliband isn't changing his tune, but it isn't the same tune that Brown was growling under his breath.
Miliband's only been saying it's ok to be worried about immigration since a focus group told him that 97% of the electorate were worried about immigration. Same as Cameron,.