Say What You Mean
Now if Ed Miliband wasn't so keen to distance himself from the New Labour party of which he was a senior figure in the days of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, he would be able to come up with an equally effective slogan.
But then Ed himself would also have to ditch the politics of image and spin that he professes to dislike so much.
But then Ed himself would also have to ditch the politics of image and spin that he professes to dislike so much.
Men Behaving Badly (28 May 2013)
According to newspaper reports, the leader of Britain's largest trade union - Len McCluskey of Unite - has tried to patch things up with the leader of the Labour Party.
After telling Ed Miliband - rather rudely I thought - to get rid of certain 'undesirable' members of his Labour shadow cabinet.
All this political argy bargy came about because of an article Len wrote for the New Statesman (NS) magazine - which I've written for in the past, as regular readers know.
But for some reason - after launching his verbal Exocets - the Unite leader then accused NS editors of distorting his message and of using 'lurid headlines' to describe his outspoken remarks.
Now I can't really see what Len is complaining about - I have to say.
Because I reproduced his article on the blog site in which he said that the Labour leader would be consigned to the 'dustbin of history' - if he listened to siren voices such as Jim Murphy, Douglas Alexander and Liam Byrne.
Strong words them - 'dustbin of history' - I thought to myself at the time.
Yet in a curious interpretation of that old New Labour slogan - 'Say what you mean and mean what you say' - Len has now decided that what he really meant to say was that Ed Miliband is doing an 'excellent job'.
Well you could have fooled me - and just about everyone else who read Len's deep thoughts in the New Statesman as well, I imagine.
But apparently what Len really meant to say is that his advice to get shot of Murphy, Alexander and Byrne because otherwise 'we're all doomed' - was really intended as a constructive comment 'from the standpoint of critical friends'.
Before adding - helpfully - that 'disagreement does not mean disloyalty'.
And you know what, I agree with Len on that point - people should be free to speak their minds.
Which is why I think that Alan Johnson (former Labour home secretary) was not being in the least disloyal when he described the Bubs (Britain's union bosses) recently - as 'fat, finger-jabbing white blokes'.
