Is the pressure already growing on Ed Miliband ?

With news reports even if they are from the daily mail of increasing pressuer on our Ed that he isnt performing well even within some labour circles there is a growing feel of unrest.

One daily mail story today suggests Alan Johnson is being prepared to step in as stand in leader if Ed has to go. I imagine alot of this is complete rubbish and tory smears but i do think there is a feeling of frustration growing by the day by labour members and possibly a few MP's behind closed doors.

I persoanlly think Ed feels he has a lot of time to play with and simply drawing the coalition up where they are going wrong but offering no alternative and simply just not being the government will win us the next election.

Frankly this will not do, Ed speaks a good game of having to change our party and change for the better. At a recent policy review forum in Gillingham last weekend he spoke up what he wished to do with teh party. All good talk but so far i've seen nothing to suggest he will be changing the party any time soon. It rather feels like he is wrestling with a huge tanker ship out of control.

It would appear that Ed Miliband and his shadow chancellor disagree publically on several issues and Alan johnson has made this very clear. Yet open discussion and disagreement is seen to be ag ood thing by the upper labour leadership. Alan Johnson disagrees with a graduate tax for student university fees and also doesnt agree with the 50p tax rate to higher earners.

To me it looks like labour is still trapped in the new labour net. It badly wants to break out but there is still a lot of the old guard there who seem to want to hold the party back.

THe irony is and i also discussed this with a friend on twitter earlier today is that new labour who were all for change and big reforms when they got going in the early 90's wanting change for the party and the country once in power are now resisting any form of change that Ed seems to want to take.

On another note another news story appears today in the sunday papers about Ed miliband being refused the chance to go to Afgahinistan for christmas to visit the troops. This has apparently been vetoed by none other than David Cameron. Ed miliband is reported to be furious at being put last in being given a chance to visit our troops out there. It seems that Nick Clegg and David Cameron are running teh show and are not goingto even let Ed get his chance to go out there for himself. This seems like a early tactic of blocking off Ed miliband and making him look weak to the country and his party.

There has been calls that his leadership has been weak taking long time to deal with Phil Wallas and that debacle of the Oldham and Saddleworth seat. Also labours lack of a alternative to the coalitions plans to cut cut cut are frustrating people. It would appear they are sticking with the plan to half the deficit in half in 4 years which i'm not that keen on as it does result in cuts similar to Margret Tatchers cuts in the 80's which were not popular then so why should they be now ?

I think Ed needs to come out a lot lot stronger, with PM q's becoming trickier by the week and Cameron gaining the edge on his most weeks it is looking more and more difficult for Ed to assert his authority and get the upper hand in teh commons.

It was always going to be hard for Ed i realise this and it was always going to take him time to bed into the role but after christmas i really expect things to be getting a lot better for him. The poll ratings shuld be doing better too. With a alternative plan ont he table soon.

We watch this space...

How much do newspapers really influence us ?

After reading over the weekend that David Milliband, one of the potential labour leaders has now gained the backing of the Times to add to his collection of the Observer and the Daily Mirror.

i would like to ask you does having the backing of a paper really matter that much. Ultimatly the voters decide- the Labour members in this situation. Would people vote for a particular party or polititian based on the support o a newspaper.

What similarities are there to a Union reccomending its members vote for a particular candidate. Should a newspaper even be allowed to endorse a candidate. Is it unfair to the other contenders.

During the last election one of Britains biggest newspapers the Sun chose to back the conservatives, although didnt actually win out right as much as they would dispute this i feel this did have a big influence and the story of them backing the tories was big at the time.

SO does it matter if a paper backs someone and if so, how much influence do the media and the papers in particular have over its readers these days ?