2013-05-23T19:55:37-04:00 Ed Miliband http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=ed-miliband Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Ed Miliband Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.3312346 2013-05-21T09:54:26-04:00 2013-05-21T10:38:44-04:00

Ed Miliband http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-miliband/
It is an opportunity to talk about the way digital is changing the global economy, changing Britain and changing the way we prepare for the next Labour government.

Thousands of new enterprises are starting up, the dream of owning your own business is coming into every home as the internet opens up the economy for millions. But countries and people can be left behind. At the same time as the internet breaks down old hierarchies, it can also create new vested interests. And, even as the internet connects people across the world, footloose companies can use the global market to avoid facing up to their responsibilities.

The rules that we set, the behaviour we reward, and the cultures we encourage can either help bring about a better future made by the many or ensure power and wealth is still concentrated in the hands of a few. In short, the choices we make will begin to determine whether we have a responsible capitalism or an irresponsible one.

The events of the past three weeks have only served to underline how distant and distracted David Cameron, not to mention his divided party, has become from addressing these issues.

Last week we watched his government being pushed around by Conservative backbenchers so that on the crucial issue of Europe policy now appears driven by the short term political interests of internal party management rather than the long term interests of British businesses and British workers.

This week we have watched the Prime Minister looking desperately over his shoulder at the MPs behind him over the issue of same-sex marriage.

Being backward-looking and inward-looking will not work if we are to succeed as a country and meet the new challenges presented by the digital age.

Tomorrow I will have more to say about the forward-looking, outward-looking agenda One Nation Labour is developing on issues ranging from access to public data for small firms, what is taught in schools, rewards for innovation and limiting anti-competitive practices.

It must also include the rules around the tax paid by the big global corporations which have been created in this digital age.

Google is said to have paid only £10million in corporation tax in the UK between 2006 and 2011, despite revenues of £11.9billion.

I was surprised the Prime Minister failed to raise this when Eric Schmidt attended the Business Advisory Council's meeting in Downing Street this week - because the subject under discussion was the Government's declared intent to tackle corporate tax avoidance.

It was even something that Mr Schmidt raised himself over the weekend when he and I both called for international tax reform.

I want to ensure transparency, proper rules on transfer pricing and a crackdown on tax havens. I don't believe this distracted and divided Government is doing enough on this issue ahead of the G8 summit. And, if we cannot get international agreement, we have been clear that we should be acting here at home.

But big choices are not confined to government. Corporations like Google must decide what kind of future they want to help create.

So the right laws must also be accompanied by the responsibility of firms - and this always goes beyond simply obeying the letter of the law.

Think about someone on benefits, who could work, but isn't doing so.

If they were meeting their requirements to report to the job centre, but were only making the barest effort to look for work, we would condemn their behaviour.

Well, similarly, companies have obligations that go beyond the law.

In Google's 2004 IPO prospectus, it said: "Don't be evil. We will be stronger in the long term, we will be better served - as shareholders and in all other ways - by a company that does good things for the world, even if we forego some short-term gains. This is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared in the company."

I take two things from this.

First, that Google wanted to do the right thing because that's its culture. And, second, because it will be better for Google: "We will be better served."

Its employees want a culture where they feel they are doing the right thing and your customers want it too.

Think about the wider society on which Google and all other companies depend: a health service and an education system training our young people to be the creative individuals we all want them to be.

Again, it is not just the right thing to do, it is essential for a prosperous country.

Google shouldn't be going to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying its taxes. It has an obligation to do more than simply comply with the letter of the law.

Google has done much to open up markets and opportunities for entrepreneurs. It has done some great things for the world.

But it also has an obligation to wider society and to live up to its own founding principles.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1070977 2011-11-02T07:05:59-04:00 2012-01-02T05:12:01-05:00

Ed Miliband http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-miliband/
This is not the time for warm words and empty statements. Instead, we need a new way forward. To construct a global plan for growth, ambitious enough to address the scale of the challenge the world economy faces. And then to build the political consensus needed to make it happen.

No-one should doubt the seriousness of the situation. Growth across most of the EU has stagnated: yesterday it was announced that the UK grew by just 0.5% in the last year; in the previous quarter Japan's economy shrank by 0.5%; and, after strong growth at the start of the year, Germany's economy has slowed down and is expected to grow only by 1% in 2012.

In both Europe and the US unemployment has been rising since March, despite the better labour market performance in Germany. Across the EU nearly one in 10 of those who want to work are not doing so. The figure is only marginally better in America, where unemployment remains over 9%. Youth unemployment in Sweden is even higher at 22.8%.

Political failure

In the face of these worrying developments people around the world have rightly looked for political leadership. But it has been notable by its absence.

In the US, political deadlock has left President Obama dealing with a Republican Party playing brinkmanship over the debt ceiling.

In Europe, after months of hesitation, faltering progress has been made in the past week. But more is needed. There must be no repeat of the wait and see approach of which there has been too much recently.

A plan

People across the world have a right to expect more from their elected leaders than shrugged shoulders.

Our challenge to leaders meeting in France is that they must provide confidence to markets and citizens that they are finally getting a grip. Meeting that challenge would mark a turning point, with a agreement of a plan that matches the scale of the crisis.

First, we need a new deal based on the understanding that lack of demand is undermining the global recover. In that context, immediate collective austerity simply will not work. Developments in the Eurozone show that the IMF's Christine Lagarde was right to warn: "slamming on the brakes too quickly will hurt the recovery and worsen job prospects."

And support for that demand must go beyond how we address fiscal deficits. As the OECD said this week, we also need greater exchange rate flexibility and domestic demand in surplus economies.

Second the summit provides an opportunity for world leaders to reiterate their commitment to fiscal sustainability, while recognising that debt problems are best dealt with on the basis of solutions tailored to the situation faced by each country, rather than through a simple one-size-fits-all ideological response. The lessons learned from the Swedish financial crisis in the 1990s, where debt was halved as a share of GDP, serves as a good example.

For countries that enjoy record low borrowing costs, President Obama has set out an approach that will work: a balanced plan to support jobs and growth now, alongside serious medium-term deficit reduction including both revenue raising and spending cuts. Others, including the UK Government, would do well to listen rather than remain locked into a programme that shows they have lost touch with the needs of their economy, businesses and people.

Countries with large deficits and high borrowing costs need to take action to reassure investors. For Italy in particular, a clear commitment to addressing debt sustainability is essential.

Third, we need to maintain the pace of banking reform. That means providing confidence that banks have the capital they need to operate in a world where suppressed growth is feeding back into higher defaults. And when populations are rightly asking how a just burden sharing can be found, the G20 should commit themselves to introducing a Financial Transaction Tax across all major financial centres. We also need to see agreement to the separation of retail and investment banking to address the risks of a finance sector which is too interconnected and too big to fail. Better regulation of rating agencies also remains to be addressed.

Fourth, the meeting in Cannes must send a message to the world that politicians have heard the concerns of their citizens and they understand the scale of the crisis. Living standards are being squeezed, unearned rewards at the top too often create greater inequality, and retrenchment of valued education spending risks undermining the knowledge economies we need for the future. People across the world understand it was flaws in free-market capitalism that caused this crisis. They need to hear the positive case for responsible capitalism which will get us out of it. The role of political leaders is not to protest, it is to set out a different course for the future. Only by doing that will we begin to restore the confidence, the lack of which is holding back the recovery.

As we saw in 2008, a global economic crisis can only be addressed by global economic leadership. There has been precious little of that in evidence in the past 18 months. Now is the time to turn the corner. To set out a plan that addresses the reality of faltering growth and rising unemployment. A plan that faces up to the G20 leaders' first responsibility: the responsibility to lead. ]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.891775 2011-07-07T17:50:11-04:00 2011-09-06T05:12:01-04:00

Ed Miliband http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-miliband/
It is at times like these that people look to their Prime Minister to face up to the challenges presented, without fear or favour. I am afraid that yesterday David Cameron did not rise to that challenge.

Having previously resisted calls for a public inquiry, he now appears to believe we should have one. But he is still dragging his feet on the timing.

He continues to defend the way the Government has handled News Corporation's bid for complete ownership of BSkyB . But the obvious, right course of action now is what it should have been from the start: to make a reference to the Competition Commission.

The right thing needs to be done in relation to this decision - and needs to be seen to be done. Referring the bid to the Competition Commission is the way to achieve it. But everything David Cameron has said indicates the Government intends to plough on regardless.

He refused to do what families up and down the country will think he must do - which is to call on those who were editing for the News of the World at the time to take responsibility for what happened - and stop pointing the fingers of blame at others.

And finally, he could not bring himself to admit - as he must - that it was a gross error of judgement to bring Andy Coulson into Downing Street machine as director of communications.

What happened while Mr Coulson was editor of the News of the World was hardly a state secret. After all, he had resigned from that post over phone hacking in the first place.

David Cameron simply made the wrong decision to give him such a senior post inside the government machine.

Above all, the public need to have confidence that they have a Prime Minister who can speak for them on how we restore the reputation of our newspapers, so vital to our democracy.

On yesterday's showing, he is failing to live up to that task.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.892365 2011-07-07T13:31:47-04:00 2011-09-06T05:12:01-04:00

Ed Miliband http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-miliband/
But the one person who seems to be staying in her job is the woman who was editor at the time of the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone and who is now Chief Executive of News International.

News International cannot deal with these allegations properly while she continues to be in place.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.192041 2009-04-28T08:48:19-04:00 2011-05-25T13:15:26-04:00

Ed Miliband http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-miliband/
This isn't just good news for our planet and energy security, but for our economic recovery and future prosperity as countries the world over fight the global recession.

In Britain and in the US, tough economic times led some people to say that we should row back on tackling climate change and delay any moves to a low carbon economy.

But now we know that the route to economic recovery lies in climate recovery.

As President Obama, Britain's Prime Minister Brown, and other world leaders have recognized, a green and sustainable economy is a vital component of the world's economic upturn.

The move to a low carbon economy is not just a way of preventing ecological disaster some years in the future, but it is also an opportunity for now.

Progressive business groups, including energy companies, recognize that business opportunities and jobs are to be found in green technology, manufacturing and energy supplies.

Our approach in the UK, and the approach we hope will succeed here in the US, in China, India and in all the world's major economies, is simple: we will turn the challenges of energy security and climate security into opportunities for businesses to become leaders in clean energy and low carbon technologies.

Here in the US, the opportunities for wind, wave and solar power to be harnessed in places from Texas, to Virginia, to the Northwest, could create millions of jobs, and billions of dollars of investment. To give businesses certainty, we need all the world's economies to agree that they will do their part to reduce emissions too.

And also take the issue of energy generated from coal. The future of coal poses the starkest dilemma we face: it is a polluting fuel, but is used across the world because it is low cost and it is flexible enough to meet fluctuations in demand for power.

To square this circle, last week I outlined to the British Parliament our plans for the biggest demonstration of carbon capture and storage technology in the world.

This includes:

• A major push on the technology: up to four new projects to demonstrate carbon capture and storage, each one ten times bigger than the largest currently running in the world, and together meaning we are doing more than any other country.
• The end of unabated coal: I proposed a new rule that no new coal power station will get consent without demonstrating carbon capture from day one, on about 25 per cent of its output. Applications that don't demonstrate carbon capture and storage will be turned down.
• And a clear commitment to low-carbon coal once it's proven: there will an independent judgement about when the technology is proven, and once it is, power stations will have to fit it not just on a part of the plant but on 100 per cent of their output.

A solution that can -- with the right strategic lead and investment from government -- once and for all settle this issue. I've already had discussions with Energy Secretary Chu as to how we can work together on CCS.

The issue of how we can radically accelerate the spread of cleaner technology -- for the benefit of the climate and for a permanent green recovery -- will be discussed at an international meeting taking place in Washington today.

The Major Economies Forum will bring together elected officials from every continent of the world to assess how we can break through the deadlock that has characterised climate talks.

Success at the Forum, and crucially at the international climate negotiations that will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark in December will help unlock these green opportunities and set the world on a clear path that protects our environment, and promotes a green recovery.

There are big issues we still need to resolve. Agreeing how money and technology should flow from one nation to another and how we put a value on rainforests, is a lot harder than agreeing that climate change needs action. Actually getting economies to move towards low carbon, with all the investment and new rules that will be needed, is a harder task still.

If governments and our businesses and citizens want it enough, a global deal to prevent climate change further damaging our environment, and our economies, is within reach. And one which once and for all will tie together our economic prosperity, energy security and the protection of our climate.]]>