The heart lifts at the essay on GDP, “That Which Makes Life Worthwhile”, which begins with a long prefatory quote from Robert Kennedy, three months before his assassination: “Gross national product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage… special locks for our doors and the jails for people who break them… the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl… napalm and… nuclear warheads and armoured cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities… Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play…. He warned that Britain’s underregulated, post-Thatcherite economic model had been captured by a predatory form of capitalism. British Labour Chief, a Jew Who Criticizes Israel, Walks a Fine Line" Archived 11 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. As he signed an 'equal marriage pledge', he said, "I strongly agree gay and lesbian couples should have an equal right to marry and deserve the same recognition from the state and society as anyone else. After Labour's 1997 landslide victory, Miliband was appointed as a special adviser to Chancellor Gordon Brown from 1997 to 2002.

The Guardian view on Go Big: Ed Miliband on transforming The Guardian view on Go Big: Ed Miliband on transforming

Labour performed well in the Midlands and South of England, winning control of councils including Birmingham, Norwich, Plymouth and Southampton. As Labour leader, Miliband made speeches aimed at winning over disaffected Liberal Democrats, identifying a difference between " The Orange Book" Lib Dems, who were closer to the Conservatives, and Lib Dems on the centre-left, offering the latter a role in helping Labour's policy review at that time.

In February 2015, Labour pledged to reverse the privatisation of the railways by getting rid of the franchising system, after previously saying that they would allow the public sector to bid for franchises. This was seen to have influenced his 2011 conference speech, signalling "predatory and productive capitalism".

Ed Miliband on five books that have shaped his life Ed Miliband on five books that have shaped his life

On 5 July, Labour MPs voted overwhelmingly by a margin of 196 to 41 to back the rule change, paving the way for NEC and conference approval, which was secured in September 2011. And long before Nick Clegg accepted Zuckerberg’s 30 million pieces of silver, Miliband was quick to spot his untrustworthiness – a judgment few would now disagree with. My one criticism is that it doesn’t include an action plan for the arts, for which Britain has long needed a Rooseveltian new deal. This, for many of us, is one of the discoveries of middle age: that we cannot escape those early familial diktats. Together with Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, Miliband also promoted a "five-point plan for jobs and growth" aimed at helping the UK economy, involving extending the bonus tax on banks pioneered by Alistair Darling, bringing forward planned long-term investment to help reduce unemployment, cutting the rate of VAT from 20% back to 17.

I don’t mean to be rude towards people who have done them, but they tend to be quite backwards-looking don't they? Keir is somebody of great decency and integrity and the more the public can see of that the more they will recognise it. Go Big’s origins lie in Miliband’s podcast series, a post-2015 challenge that’s allowed academics and activists, campaigners, and politicians of all stripes to share their insights on all manner of subjects with the wider public. Maybe they’ve all been listening to his Reasons to Be Cheerful podcasts – and now they can riffle through Go Big and nick Miliband’s ideas on “how to fix our world”. Mr Miliband’s signature policies – such as opening a national investment bank, targeting regional infrastructure and encouraging business investment with tax incentives – continue to be pinched by the current government.

Labour urges ministers to show ‘ambition’ as it recasts green

As he likes to say, in a phrase that presupposes a different world to that in which we live, “global problems require global solutions”. Though he has a chapter entitled “Tackling populist nationalism head on”, the tone of his argument retains a sense that any deviation from the idea of the world as he describes it is a kind of irritant to be brushed aside in the manner of Gillian Duffy (“that bigoted woman”) on the 2010 campaign trail.

Alongside his brother, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, he served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010 under Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Cameron later took the unusual step of saying that the government would back Miliband's motion that the BSkyB bid be dropped, and an hour before Miliband's motion was due to be debated, News International announced that it would withdraw the bid. I think you can have an instinct that you want to live in a more equal society, but this book gave me more evidence why this should be the case. During the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, Miliband was named by the Daily Telegraph as one of the "saints" of the scandal, due to his claiming one of the lowest amounts of expenses in the House of Commons and submitting no claims that later had to be paid back.

Ed Miliband on ‘Whoever is Labour leader has my sympathy’: Ed Miliband on

Following George Galloway's unexpected win in the March by-election in Bradford West, Miliband announced he would lead an inquiry into the result, saying that it "could not be dismissed as a one-off".

He is confident there will be a chance for Labour when the Tories fail to deliver on their promises. Following David Cameron's success in forming a majority government, Miliband resigned as Leader of the Labour Party on 8 May, with Harriet Harman becoming acting leader while a leadership election was initiated. He has since reflected that his 2015 manifesto was insufficiently radical, but he was right on many things, correctly identifying “the squeezed middle” and “a crisis in living standards that has now become a crisis of confidence for middle-class families”. The first election to the Shadow Cabinet that took place under Miliband's leadership was on 7 October 2010. Following Labour's defeat by the Conservative Party at the 2015 general election, Miliband resigned as leader on 8 May 2015.