http://www.unison.org.uk/labourlink/pages_view.asp?did=11710
During the leadership campaign Ed Miliband has given strong pledges to defend public services and those union members who provide them:
“I think we gave too strong an impression that ‘public was bad, private was good’. We should have done more to celebrate the work the public sector does. We need to recognise that markets have a role in our economy. But there are limits to markets, particularly in relation to public services. We got the balance wrong.”
“If you look at what happened in the NHS, it turned out that independent treatment centres were more expensive than the NHS alternative. The problem was not, necessarily, opening it up, but that we excluded the NHS. We said that ‘what counts is what works’, but the NHS providers weren’t allowed to bid for those contracts. So we need to change that. And some of the experience of the private sector in relation to public services – take cleaning in hospitals, for example – has been very bad.”
http://www.unison.org.uk/labourlink/pages_view.asp?did=11709
Significantly, this morning the Daily Mirror has joined the majority of the Shadow Cabinet and the Labour Party establishment in endorsing David Miliband for leader.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/opinion/2010/09/01/the-daily-mirror-backs-david-miliband-as-the-next-labour-leader-115875-22527911/
Each affiliated member’s vote may not be worth much - 0.00000943 per cent - but Ed Miliband must receive an overwhelming majority of them to stand a chance of winning the election. http://unisonactive.blogspot.com/2010/08/thickest-cuts-of-labour-party-democracy.html