Just a brief note on Ed Miliband . . .

I will now acknowledge that I voted for Ed as my first choice as Labour leader although I felt and still do that all of the candidates were far more capable than either Cameron or Clegg.

Back in our last period of vicious Right wing government I was very much of the opinion that political change created cultural change and that most of the changes in our society that I perceive as being both necessary and desirable would, in the first instance at least, be initiated via Parliament.
 Experience has not supported this view point. Although this does sometimes happen, far more frequently it is cultural change that creates political change. For this reason much of my own advocacy for change is extra-parliamentary   in nature. Nonetheless Government remains centrally important  as does the idea of the enabling state (Neil Kinnock's term, compare and contrast with the vacuous platitude "Small State" which Orange Tories so frequently parrot as some kind of rationale for their actions.)

Nonetheless there is a minimal programme which I would expect any political party to adhere to in order to be considered worthy of my support. Simply this
: (1) To maintain and where possible improve pay and conditions for ordinary working people.
  (2) To support and where necessary defend the maximum possible levels of personal (including sexual) freedoms.
  (3) To provide a consistent, unequivocal and unambiguous opposition to Fascism in all forms.

I have complete trust in Ed Miliband on all counts. I also trust the Labour Party and , amongst major parties, the Labour Party alone on all counts .