Liz Kendall? She's another Blairite so no thanks.
Quote: DaveO "Absolute nonsense. He wasn't remotely "hostile to business".'"
This is the key issue for me. No matter what Labour do they are always perceived as not being pro-business, which is ludicrous given their track record when last in government. Miliband started off well by saying he wanted to take on multinationals but he barely seemed to mention small and local businesses, which is where they should pitch themselves.
Every year it gets clearer and clearer that multinationals, in the service sector specifically, do little other than hoover up money from local economies and then pass them those benefits to shareholers. Sure some of them are necessary e.g. car manufacturing, but the little guy and his business is coming under ever-increasing pressure from multinationals e.g. supermarket suppliers on ridiculously low profit margins.
The Yanks have been through all this with mega-businesses like Walmart driving out small businesses who can't compete on price. It's okay saying that's market forces but small businesses put money into the local economy unlike many multinationals who look for economies of scale deals with national contractors e.g. Biffa do the bins for Tesco, at tiny profit margins. That money goes to Biffa plc, whereas if Joe Bloggs did it, the money would go into his business, his employeers, his profits and ultimately his life, where he's more likely to use local businesses when spending e.g. decorators. Money that goes to the stock exchange is money taken from that local economy. That's perhaps not as big an issue with some, but when that money goes out of the country it's rarely seen again.
The Tories are certainly never going to tackle this and Labour probably won't but it's a fundamental issue for the long-term security of this country's prosperity because we don't have the manufacturing sector to replace that money. It's one of the reasons why American politicians voted against TTIP because they could see what's likely to happen i.e. US corps shifting work to cheaper countries in Europe. American politicians are bought sure, but they're not so bought that they'll sacrifice jobs in their own constituencies just to satisfy the desire to maximise profit on Wall St.