Merlene challenges David Miliband on Labour's record at public meeting

11.00.00am GMT Mon 22nd Feb 2010

On the evening of Friday 19 February, Foreign Secretary David Miliband came to Hammersmith at the invitation of Labour MP Andrew Slaughter and held a public meeting at St Paul's Church near the Broadway.

Anti-war campaigners came out in force to lobby against atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. Mr Miliband however preferred to focus his address on three great myths, as he called them. First, that the country had been going backwards under Labour, second that there were no more big causes to fight for and third that the Tory Party had changed.

Merlene Emerson was introduced by Andrew Slaughter as the Liberal Democrat Candidate for Hammersmith who might be given the second vote should the Alternative Vote be introduced. She therefore could not resist asking Mr Miliband why only after 12 years, as a deathbed conversion, did PM Brown finally concede to bringing in electoral changes. Merlene also challenged the Foreign Secretary on Labour's record in failing to narrow the wealth and health divide and asked if Labour would consider adopting the Liberal Democrat policy to take those earning under £10,000 per year out of the tax bracket altogether.

More importantly, she asked what he and the Government would do to restore the public's loss of faith in politicians and the political process? In answer to this last question, Mr Miliband said revealingly that the loss of faith in politicians had much to do with the over-centralised form of government.

Merlene commented afterwards of the public meeting:

"I was pleased that many members of the public demanded answers on issues such as Britain's complicity on torture as well as the alleged pre-knowledge of the assassination of a Hamas terrorist by Israeli intelligence. We did not however learn anything new from the rather defensive answers given.

Merlene continued: "Whilst the coming General Elections will probably be decided on bread and butter issues and on which Party will be able to take the country out of the current economic downturn, it's on international foreign policy where the public will judge our politicians on their leadership and moral integrity."