Ed Miliband just doesn't get globalisation

If you think things couldn’t get worse than Ed Miliband’s Five Live interview, read his speech on patriotism. It seeks to build on his ‘predators’ speech, which suggested a Manichean divide between bad companies and good companies. Labour MPs of Mr Miliband’s political heritage always place manufacturers in the latter camp. He hails the success of many of them. ‘You know better than I that this success has been achieved against the odds.’ I suspect they know better than he the effect that a 25 per cent devaluation has on exports. ‘Economic protectionism is what governments reach for when they don’t believe firms can compete. And we will never return to those days,’ he says – before doing just that.

‘From our government to our culture, we need pride and patriotism if our British firms are to succeed.’

Patriotism – as in, preferring British-made goods to imports. British banks should be patriotic and lend, he says.

‘The other day in Scotland I talked to a wind turbine manufacturer who complained that while he had employed 20 people in his firm it could have been 30 if only he had got the loan he needed from a leading British bank.’