Miliband: I understand UN bid

As the annual Labour Party conference draws to a close, many are wondering whether the party has regrouped after its landslide electoral defeat last year. The conference, which was held in Liverpool in England’s north-west over the last four days, drew a large crowd from across Britain. The party hoped that the conference would provide its new leader, David Miliband, with the opportunity to prove his authority to both the party and the electorate. Polling released yesterday by the Independent suggested that less than one in four (24 percent) of voters considered Miliband a credible alternative Prime Minister, representing a major problem for the new leader. His speech yesterday, which was underwhelming, is unlikely to change the polling data. Today Miliband held a question and answer session with the public in another attempt to demonstrate his prowess. The session, which Miliband lauded as the first of its kind in Britain, took questions from an audience made up of Labour party members, delegates and members of the wider community. Miliband was keen to make clear that a large portion of the arena, which was only half full, was made up of the general public. However, the overwhelmingly majority of questions were asked by card-carrying members on the party, drawing doubt on Miliband’s claim to have held a genuinely open Q&A session. Labour members appeared to welcome Miliband’s performance, although journalists in the media section were more sceptical of his fluffy answers and failure to answer questions properly. The only question asked about foreign affairs came from a man who wondered why the Labour Party insisted on demonising Israel. In perhaps his strongest response of the session, Miliband said: “I can totally understand why President Abbas has gone to the UN.” 10 years after September 11, when we were promised that there would be a roadmap to peace, nothing has happened he said. “I say this as a friend of Israel”, he clarified, “but you are no friend of Israel if you defend the status quo.” Labour announced a fortnight ago that it supports the Palestinian UN bid. The conference itself was light on policy, which some observers might consider typical of a party several years out from an election. Much of the discussion was based on re-engaging with the party’s traditional base and appealing to the wider community, which had been alienated after 13 years of Labour rule between 1997 and 2010. With the economy collapsing in the last two years of Labour government, this will be a difficult task. Meanwhile, the wider conference was a vibrant affair, with hundreds of seminars held by fringe groups hoping to influence Labour policy. Seminar topics included transport, healthcare, economics and energy politics. No fewer than four events were held in support of Palestine, with a number of seminars discussing the impact of the Arab Spring, the Kurds and other issues facing the Middle East. A seminar held on Monday by the Labour Friends of Palestine, was perhaps the best-attended fringe session of the conference. Attended by 300 people, with a further 150 turned away, it gave a good indication of the importance of the Palestinian issue among Labour supporters. In another seminar today, MPs urged the escalation of the Palestine issue on Labour’s agenda. Thousands of ideas were discussed over the four days, with many sessions attended by MPs and senior party leaders. Only time will tell whether Labour will take on some of these ideas. Although Miliband and the party seemed genuinely committed to transformation, it remains to be seen whether they will be able to win back the trust of the wary electorate in time for the next election. But with years to go until the next election, it is certainly too early to call its result.