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Is Ed Miliband too ‘weird’ to be British prime minister?

Britain's Labour Party had high hopes for Thursday's local elections. As the results came out, however, those hopes began to fade. The real story of the election seems to be the remarkable success of the renegade anti-Europe party UKIP – a success that often came at the expense of Labour.

While some of UKIP's success is no doubt down to its leader Nigel Farage and his unorthodox style of campaigning, some Labour supporters think that their real problem closer to home: Their own leader, Ed Miliband. Is he just too "weird" to be prime minister?

WashingtonPost

Ukip didn’t actually win very much, but we seem to have lost the will to take a stand against the xenophobes

Not all Ukip supporters are racist, but all of them support a party that attracts racists

Independent

Ukip has won the European elections

Labour privately concedes defeat.

Nigel Farage has got his "earthquake". Just two regional results are in from the European elections, but Labour has privately conceded defeat. The swing to the Farageists in the north-east and the east of England is too great for any other outcome to be conceivable.

A Labour source told me that all signs pointed to a Ukip victory, "a result we've been expecting for months", in a contest in which the nationalist right is thriving. In France, the National Front has won the contest and in Denmark the anti-immigrant People's Party topped the poll. While Labour has become the first main opposition party not to win the European elections since 1984, party sources are emphasising that the Tories are on course to finish third in a national contest for the first time in history and that David Cameron will become the first Conservative leader since John Major not to win the European elections.

Newstatesman

Labour needs a politics of hope to counter Ukip's politics of despair
Saving the NHS, a living wage and tax justice should be at the heart of Ed Miliband's strategy, not more immigration-bashing

Owen Jones guardian.com

'It's Mr Mrs Farage, Prime Minister - come to measure the carpets and curtains'


From MAC in the DailyMail

Cameron will lay it for him...

What’s going on in Tower Hamlets? Vote count enters its fifth day amid claims of voter intimidation www.independent.co.uk

Nick Clegg has said Lord Oakeshott is seeking to "undermine" the Lib Dems after the peer commissioned an opinion poll suggesting the party would do better with a new leader. BBC

Oakeshott quits Lib Dems with Clegg 'disaster' warning

The peer, a former Treasury spokesman for the party who is seen as close to Vince Cable, said the party had lost its "roots, principles and values".

He quit after it emerged he commissioned polls suggesting the party would do better without Mr Clegg.

Nick Clegg accused him of seeking to "undermine" the Lib Dems and warned he faced disciplinary action.

Business Secretary Vince Cable, who is currently in China on government business, has distanced himself from the polls but Lord Oakeshott suggested that he had told Mr Cable about their findings "several weeks ago".

BBC

LibDem Website Euro Humiliation

Last week, the LibDem webpage listing the names of the party’s MEPs had the following url: www.libdems.org.uk/meps.

This afternoon, following the loss of all but one LibDem MEP at the Euro elections, the url has been updated to: www.libdems.org.uk/mep.

The page now looks like this:



At least they won’t have any problem reaching quorum at their endless group meetings.

Order-Order

'Dumb People Shouldn't Be Able To Vote,' Former Tory Councillor Clare George-Hilley Says www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

Top Lib Dem Danny Alexander 'could lose seat at next election'

The chief secretary to the Treasury has the support of just 16% of constituents, compared with 32% for Alex Salmond's party and 25% for Scottish Labour, the ICM poll suggests.

The prediction was revealed by Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott on the day he quit the party during a damaging row about Nick Clegg's leadership and the disastrous European election result.

It follows other snapshot polls in key Lib Dem areas - including Mr Clegg's Sheffield Hallam constituency - which could be lost at the next general election.

STV.TV

Nick Clegg and Vince Cable are each facing questions over the future leadership of the Liberal Democrats. BBC

The Tories have come under fire for accepting just over £105,000 from telecoms giant Lycamobile, which has not paid corporation tax in Britain since 2007, despite making millions each year. www.huffingtonpost.co.uk