We're Britain. We're better than this."

"We are talking more about immigration as a party and it's right that we do so.  But it will always be on the basis of Labour values, not UKIP values.  Unlike David Cameron what will never do is try to out-UKIP UKIP.

"I think it is time we levelled with people about UKIP.  It is time we had a debate about where they really stand.

"They think that working mothers aren't worth as much as men.  Life was easier when there wasn't equality for gay and lesbian people.  The NHS would be better off privatised.  Rights at work, whether they come from Europe or from here, are simply a barrier to economic success.

"We're Britain.  We're better than this.  You can't build a vision of the future if you don't believe in equal rights.  You can't succeed as a country if you try to close yourself off from the world.  You can't make a fairer country if you try to destroy our National Health Service."

Ed Miliband, November 2014

 

Glenis and Ed out campaigning in Nottingham

 

Only two days to go and the Tories are desperately trying to get everybody to stay at home and not vote.  Of course they expect (and deserve) a going over on Thursday, but what worries them is coming third behind UKIP.  We have a special UKIP problem here in the East Midlands, of course.  The top candidate on their list, and thus the only one who stands a chance of getting in, is not going to serve.  He's already campaigning for the parliamentary by-election in the Nottinghamshire seat of disgraced Tory Patrick Mercer - where I understand he got involved with a disabled Labour supporter yesterday.  To round off a poor day for Mr Helmer, his own party leader, interviewed by Paxman on Newsnight, blamed some of Mr H's stronger opinions on him being over 70 and therefore presumably in Farage's opinion ga-ga.

 

 

 

Voting on Thursday is about more than ensuring embarrassment for Cameron and disappointment for Mr Helmer.  It's about standing up for the rights of ordinary people all across Europe - the rights to travel, the rights to be treated fairly at work, the right to live or work abroad if you chose, and the fundamental right to be treated by the elite as a human being whose opinion actually counts.