Dan Hodges, Ed Miliband and a touch of class warfare
Telegraph blogger goes ballistic over Labour’s new party political spoof. Does he have a point?

HAS the Daily Telegraph political blogger Dan Hodges – former Labour Party staffer, uber-Blairite and son of the film actress Glenda Jackson – gone bonkers or suffered a major sense-of-humour failure? Or has he put his finger on a concern troubling some Labour supporters – that, whatever the opinion polls might suggest, Ed Miliband is not going to win the 2015 general election?
In his latest Telegraph column, Hodges takes aim at a new Labour party political broadcast uploaded on YouTube this week. Hodges doesn’t just hate it – he thinks it is proof that by playing the class card, Labour is throwing away the chance of victory next May.
The object of Hodges’s ire is a three-minute black and white film titled The Un-Credible Shrinking Man which targets – mercilessly if not always hilariously – the Lib Dem party leader. It is set at the Cabinet table where ‘Nick Clegg’ is gradually beaten into submission by a bullying ‘David Cameron’ to the hurrahs of fellow toffee-nosed Tory ministers.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
‘Clegg’ gradually shrinks in size - just like Grant Williams in the 1957 sci-fi film The Incredible Shrinking Man - until he is a mere doll-sized figure, left alone to fend for himself against a now gigantic Downing Street cat.
You get the picture. Like a lot of spoofs, it’s not as funny as its creators thought it might be, but it’s not that bad either and, on one level at least, it does its job – which is to (a) get talked about (how many party political broadcasts achieve that?) and (b) target disaffected Lib Dem voters by mocking their leader as a man who has abandoned his principles (on tuition fees, etc) for the sake of sharing power with the Tories.
But Hodges is left desperately unimpressed. “It’s not just the ludicrous caricature of the Conservatives – including a gratuitous dig at the late Baroness Thatcher,” he writes. “Or the infantile portrayal of Nick Clegg. Or the fact it seeks to treat the electorate like they’re sniggering schoolchildren.
“It proves conclusively that Labour is no longer serious about winning the next election. It has no serious strategy, or serious policy, or any intention of convincing the nation it is serious about governing.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
“Instead the people who run it – or pretend to run it – are playing a game. They are living out a self-indulgent student fantasy in which they get to strike poses, and shout slogans, and scream ‘Toff!’ at every passing Tory they see.”
He concludes: “Labour has sent a clear message. ‘We’re just not a serious party of government’.”
Hodges’s ballistic missile does not come out of the blue. He is a fully signed-up Blairite who wanted David not Ed Miliband to lead the Labour party and has long argued that Ed is steering a course too far to the left.
Nor is it the first time he’s shown his disapproval of people taking “gratuitous digs” against Thatcher. This came up a year ago when he urged Labour backbenchers to show respect at a special session of Parliament following her death.
But Glenda Jackson - star of A Touch of Class and Women in Love and since 1992 the Labour MP for Hampstead - totally ignored her son’s advice and launched into a speech in which she criticised Thatcher for treating “vices as virtues” and called her “a woman, but not on my terms”.
The next day, Hodges wrote a very touching column which began “I tried to warn you, Mum. I really did…” and yet concluded: “I think the House of Commons assembled on Wednesday to honour a woman of conviction. And like it or not, a woman of conviction was what it got to see.”
Will he show the same humility if Team Miliband can prove him wrong about the coming general election?
We may not have long to wait to discover whether Hodges is on the right track. In two weeks’ time, the latest megapoll of marginal seats commissioned by the Tory peer Michael Ashcroft will be released. For polling anoraks, this is just as interesting as the results of the local or EU elections, due the same weekend.
Lord Ashcroft’s last such poll, conducted in September 2013, showed Labour enjoying an 8.5 per cent swing in the marginals, compared with a six per cent swing nationally – enough to guarantee Miliband victory by 70 seats or more.
Recent national polling, however, has been far less positive for Labour: the Populus monthly aggregate shows Labour’s lead has been gradually slipping – mainly due to the slowing down of disaffected Lib Dem voters saying they’ll switch to Labour. (Hence, Labour’s party political.)
If Ashcroft’s new poll shows a similar falling-off of Lib Dem switchers to Labour in the all-important marginals, then it will boost Hodges’s argument that Team Miliband needs to do an awful lot more to secure victory than put out funny films.
As Mike Smithson of Political Betting puts it, Labour “has attracted very little new support from any group other than those who voted Lib Dem four years ago.” Labour needs these disaffected Lib Dems badly: “Managing this is the most vital task for Labour if they want to return to power.”
Nigel Horne is Comment Editor of The Week.co.uk. He was formerly Editor of the website until September 2013. He previously held executive roles at The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times.
-
DHS preps for major ICE expansion, rankling local law enforcement
IN THE SPOTLIGHT As the Trump administration positions ICE as the primary federal police force, its recruitment efforts have been met with a less-than-enthusiastic response
-
The return of 'Wednesday,' an 'Alien' prequel and a dramatic retelling of the Amanda Knox trial all happening in August TV
the week recommends This month's new television releases include 'Alien: Earth,' 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox' and a new season of 'Wednesday'
-
How does a 401(k) hardship withdrawal work and is it smart to take one?
the explainer More Americans than ever are resorting to this option in a pinch
-
Who will win the battle for the soul of the Green Party?
An ideological divide is taking root among the environmentalists
-
Are we facing a summer of riots?
Today's Big Question Anti-immigrant unrest in Essex has sparked fears of a summer of disorder
-
Who stands to gain – and lose – from 16-year-old voters?
Today's Big Question Many assume Labour will benefit but move could 'backfire' if Greens, a new hard-left party or Reform continue to pick up momentum
-
What difference will the 'historic' UK-Germany treaty make?
Today's Big Question Europe's two biggest economies sign first treaty since WWII, underscoring 'triangle alliance' with France amid growing Russian threat and US distance
-
Mortgage reform: is Rachel Reeves betting the house on City rules shake-up?
Today's Big Question Reforms could create up to 36,000 additional mortgages next year
-
Corbynism returns: a new party on the Left
Talking Point Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's breakaway progressive party has already got off to a shaky start
-
How will Labour pay for welfare U-turn?
Today's Big Question A dramatic concession to Labour rebels has left the government facing more fiscal dilemmas
-
Backbench rebellions and broken promises: is it getting harder to govern?
Today's Big Question Backbench rebellions and broken promises: is it getting harder to govern?