Parliament Street’s Head of Policy, Clare George- Hilley, argues that there are two clear choices ahead of the general election: The Conservative Party’s long-term economic plan, or Ed Miliband and the Labour Party’s short-term economic sham.
Labour’s decision to declare war on some of Britain’s most successful businesses is a reminder that Ed Miliband isn’t fit to be leader of the opposition, let alone Prime Minister.
His relentless series of attacks on some of country’s most successful, iconic companies, which employ many hundreds of thousands of people, isn’t simply a political miscalculation, it is a disgrace that makes him unfit for office.
Ed Miliband has systematically attempted to smear and damage some of Britain’s best known brands. Next, Waitrose, Boots, Tesco have all come under fire from the most anti-business Labour leader for decades. He even called Sports Direct, a shining example of entrepreneurism and the UK’s largest sporting retailer, which operates in over 500 stores worldwide, as a ‘bad place to work’.
Traditionally, leaders of the opposition and the governing party work with wealth creators to grow the economy and create more jobs. It is however clear that under the leadership of Ed Miliband Labour’s mission is to trash the reputations of our biggest employers, doing catastrophic damage to our economy.
But why should we expect a man like Ed Miliband to understand the important role that these successful companies play in our economy?
The Labour leader was born into an academic multi-millionaire family and has never had a proper job or worked in the real world. The Labour party and the trade unions have been his paymaster all his life.
After putting up with many months of bullying from the Labour Party, I’m pleased to see that finally British businesses are beginning to stand up for themselves and hit back.
Sir Nigel Rudd, one of Britain’s leading industrialists, said the highly personal attacks from Ed Miliband “stifled debate” and “made people think twice about voicing their opinions”. Lord Rose, the chairman of online grocer Ocado and now a Tory peer, added that Labour was unfairly “almost playing the man, not the football”.
Labour strategists will argue that the return attacks on Ed Miliband are being orchestrated by Conservative strategist Lyton Crosby and the Tory elite. But nobody believes this.
Ed Miliband’s current predicament is firmly of his own making and his inexplicable obsession with running down our country’s biggest employees is coming back to haunt him.
A few months ago the anxieties around Ed Miliband were his weirdness and obsession with welfare. But take a look at his anti-British business agenda and it’s easy to see he isn’t just incompetent, he is a serious threat to our economic stability.
Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair spent years building up Labour’s credentials and relationships with businesses. They knew that building a broad array of successful support meant engaging with the wealth creators in a sensible and serious fashion.
With this in mind, how they must despair that in just a few months Ed Miliband has destroyed not only these relationships, but re-cast Labour in the eyes of voters as an enemy of British businesses.
So whilst Ed Miliband engulfs his party in more self-created chaos, David Cameron and the Conservatives are continuing their campaign of economic competence. The next election will be a choice between the Conservative Party’s long-term economic plan, and Ed Miliband and the Labour Party’s short-term economic sham.
The next election is a straight choice between the road to recovery and the road to utter chaos. If we let Ed Miliband into Number 10, he will unleash his burning hatred for British businesses in ways we can only begin to imagine.
The time for protest votes is at an end. If we don’t vote for David Cameron and the Conservatives then our country will return to the dark days of economic chaos, the way it was under Gordon Brown.
