'Sponsored walk' jibe as Miliband rallies militants who get set for a general strike
By Gerri Peev
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Ed Miliband will speak at a trade union rally today in which militant leaders will call for a general strike.
In doing so, the Labour leader will risk accusations he is a hostage to unions that have donated £17million to his party since he took over in September 2010.
His Tory opponents have already called a march that will proceed his speech a ‘sponsored walk’. They have set up a parody website showing him asking for donations to his ‘favourite charity, the Labour Party’.
Showing his support: Labour leader Ed Miliband has been accused by the Tories of being a slave to the Unions
In it, he says: ‘If you’re free, we’re having a little party at my house afterwards. It’s the big one, in the posh neighbourhood, worth well over two million – you can’t miss it.’
Mr Miliband met business leaders yesterday to publicise the mis-selling scandal by banks that broke many small firms.
But his attempts to throw off the ‘Red Ed’ tag will be harmed by his association with left-wingers protesting against government cuts in Hyde Park, central London. In his speech, he is expected to say: ‘They told us “we’re all in this together”.
Time for action: Rail union leader Bob Crow has called on his workers to stand up and be counted
‘But now they are cutting taxes for millionaires, as they raise taxes on everybody else, including our pensioners.
‘They told us the gain would be worth the pain. But even after the cuts, the pain, the tax rises, borrowing is not falling – it’s rising. They are even failing the one test they set themselves.’
Mr Miliband will say that trickle-down economics is not the way to get Britain working. But he will admit that in power he would have to make cuts: ‘I do not promise easy times. But I do promise a different and fairer approach.
‘This Government has shown us self-defeating austerity, by cutting too far and too fast, is not the answer. I would never cut taxes for millionaires while raising taxes for everybody else.’
Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to gather to hear union leaders call for a general strike over cuts to their pensions and public services.
Bob Crow of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union will say: ‘The marches are a building block towards the objective of co-ordinated action and a general strike. That is why RMT says, march today, strike tomorrow.’
But Matthew Sinclair of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘The protesters are arguing against necessary spending cuts and pension reform in favour of preserving an unaffordable status quo at the expense of families struggling in the recession. Militant union leaders oppose any cuts in public spending but most people know public spending has become unsustainable.’
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Seriously. There really is something genetically abnormal about Milliband. He just doesn't look right... or act right.
- Cruster , Lonodn, United Kingdom, 21/10/2012 00:05
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