Miliband Doth Protest Too Much

Labour clearly think they are on to a good thing by raising an urgent question about Hunt and thus obtaining an emergency debate this afternoon in the House of Commons. What a complete and utter waste of time and if Ed Miliband and Ed Balls think the electorate will be impressed by what happened this afternoon they should think again. No doubt they thought the debate would be seen as a demonstration by Labour of mach politics but this kind of witch hunt is not something the electorate likes as it smacks of schoolboy tactics and hypocrisy - of Labour protesting too much. The history of the crony and frankly creepy and indeed undesirable relationship between Murdoch and Labour is too well documented to give Labour the moral high ground (which is an oxymoron in any case where Ed Balls is involved). Everyone knows Labour would have done anything to keep Murdoch's support and that was why Brown was so upset when he learnt that he had lost that support when Murdoch for good commercial reasons changed sides. Murdoch wanted approval for his BSkyB purchase and when he guessed that Labour were going to lose the election and would not be there to make the appropriate ruling he naturally made himself agreeable to the party that would be dealing with his application. Miliband thinks we have all forgotten this but he's wrong and it is something the Tories should remind us about at every opportunity. Ed Miliband knows he is not a favourite of Murdoch as he would much have preferred the brother to have won the Labour leadership election and perhaps calculates that he has nothing to lose but he's wrong. We will remember this afternoon's performance and although it will have no effect on the outcome of the local elections it will have an effect on the bigger picture when it comes to the general election.