ED WON!

good news - a break from both Blair/Brown and Cameron/Clegg. Lets give him the benefit of the doubt and see how he makes his mark. My daughter and I went to hear him and the other candidates locally and he seemed the most genuine and enthusiastic...

the telegraph said 'Ed Milliband is as much use to the Labour party as a furry woodland creature'!

They should tell themselves you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.

Absolute gift for the coalition.They can't believe their luck!

The labour party conference appears to be in a state of shock at having shot themselves in the foot.

Oh Ed, is indeed a good egg.
But he is far too left wing to take the party to a win at the next election.

A senior New Labour figure is quoted in the Guardian today as saying:

"This is a miracle result for the Tories - a leader who does not command majority support among MPs or party members."

I voted for DM, I'm sure DC is delighted.

Agree that Ed has more charisma than David. But 'I'm certainly not Bob Crowe's man' sounds like something that Bob Crowe taught him to say.

Just bumped into a neighbour who was at university with Ed and says he is a Good Egg. She's thinking of rejoining the Labour party now he's in charge.

Can't work up much enthusiasm for any of them, myself, but hope he'll make me change my mind. David struck me as glib and I don't understand the claims about his charisma - certainly doesn't come across in the media.

Think you're being harsh. He is Leader of the Labour Party, as of yesterday, which changes his profile, possibilities, responsibilities and choices.

EM makes it harder for a Labour govt., but one with DM would be a leeetle too Blaireque.

There's a lot wrong with Ed. Mostly that his parliamentary party are anything but 100% behind him and are, even now, plotting to replace him with big bro 'I'm not bitter, honest' Dave. And when he has to say something like 'I'm certainly not Bob Crow's man' out loud it sounds like he's trying to convince himself rather than us. Should be an interesting few months.

So specifically what is wrong with Ed? Not as good looking as his brother but very warm.

mj - well of course not every middle income family voted Labour. Many don't vote full stop.

But this is the section of the electorate that Laboour targeted under Blair's leadership and who gave him two landslides.

The loss of these voters is election suicide.

we are a middle income family and I haven't been tempted to vote labour yet and doubt I ever will. There is the negative union association and also I think of labour as being a towny/city party not very interested in the countryside/environment. I didn't mind the idea of paying more in tax to have better education/NHS. However it has become clear that the money wasn't being directed at all areas of the country just labour heartlands.

the squeezed middle are those families on middle incomes which don't entitle them to any state benefits but are certainly not rich enought to afford tax hikes.

They are the centre left. Or indeed the centre.
They do not wish to see the vulnerable do without and they support the NHS and a benefit safety net, but they accept that there have to be cuts.

Blair appealed to exactly these people and won two land slides.

As the party became ever more state centric and left they turned away.

Labour can never win another victory without them.

What is a 'squeezed middle'?

I don't know, but as an aside I was reading some articles from the Times etc. dated in the last couple of years and they started off staunchly against DM saying that EM had much better qualities for a PM; and now its RedEd, a whole Cain and Abel thing and how DM would have been a great leader. Seems like a lot of 'Journalism' to me.

Actually, Hillary Clinton rather liked DM didn't she? I can't help wondering what she would have been like as president.

Oh no I am just rambling on - I need a cup of tea and to get on with Sunday Lunch.

He's already talking to the 'squeezed middle'.... do me a favour. If he were to try angling the Labour Party towards favouring the middle classes there are only two things that would be getting squeezed.... and they'd be soft, dangly and firmly gripped by Bob Crow.

Ed M is not a fool. He will swim to the centre ground and will now talk to the country rather than the unions

how could you blurt it out like that?!! I was saving it for a surprise.

God, I've gone all Tory. I probably would have voted for a David led-labour. And I'd have voted for Oona. Definitely. Not keen on Ed and can't stand Ken.

Depressing.

Pan, I am a party member and have been involved for years, and trust me LFN and all the ohte tories have nothing to worry about.
This country has made it plain again, and again and again, that it has no appetite for left politics.
That is why Kinnock and Blair and so many others spent so many long yeras modernising the party - we were unelectable.
I really feel that this vote is taking us backwards.
Lots of Labour voters turned away at this election because they couldn't stomach Gordon - I know that for the first time in years I refused to campaign for him. I was not alone.
Ed is even more unplatable than GB.

We faced a very stark choice in these elections. Do we wish to be an opposition or do we wish to present an alternative for governance. This is our answer.

It is all over for DM. He will take up a position in Ed's shadow cabinet, then quietly leave politics and probably the UK. I am quite sure of it. Beckysharper is right. He bottled it earlier on, and he does not want to turn Labour into the nasty party with constant infighting.

Also DH thinks that if EM fails, the electorate would see the same problems with David - too intellectual, etc.

Ed might pleasantly surprise us. His majority is not huge, so he might quietly adopt some of his brother's policies. And he said he would listen. We'll see.

I would not like to be DM when he wakes up this morning.

it is really something when posters like longfingernails go to the extent they do to rubbish EM's election. It's as if they have something to worry about.

Agree with chil1234. I think this is only temporary and even fortuitous for David. They didn't want him to peak too early in case the public got mightily sick of him. So Ed will will take the lead for a few years while Labour are in opposition, then David will step in near election time. Ed will be the Iain Drunken Smith interim figure.

All the pundits and journos were saying that this is David's career in politics finished and that he will disappear from politics in a years' time. I think that is nonsense, he'll be back grinning when the time is right and the election draws near.

The GMB's totally impartial ballot envelope:

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