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# Welcome Ed
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/welcome-ed/
- Published: 2010-09-25T18:09:05.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-22T09:46:14.000Z
- Description: Labour makes the best of its choice
- Author: Anthony Barnett
- Tags: Politics & activism, #Migrated, Democracy and government, #en, #Import 2026-04-09 15:45, #appended-excerpt

Labour's choice is a welcome one. It may be too early to say what Ed Miliband is for but:

It is a defeat for Blair and Mandelson

It is a defeat for supporters of the Iraq War

Its a defeat for the corporate media

It opens up Labour to an essential debate on liberty and democracy

There is one other thing that needs to be said immediately. The media will go on about how bad it is for him that he won thanks to Trade Union support. But it is the MPs who are the closed shop. Labour party members who are often brain-dead loyalists. The more open the electorate the better, should be the rule. The Trade Unions were not a bloc vote. They all had individual votes. They were closer to the public, because part of the pubic, than either members of parliament or loyalists who will stick with their machine and the party line. If Ed's egalitarianism appeals to them that's because it is a good start, not a greedy demand on the public purse.

Labour makes the best of its choice