Talk:Ed Miliband/GA1

GA Review
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Reviewer: FeydHuxtable (talk) 13:40, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Preliminary review
Looks goods in most respect but Im afraid there are too many issues for me to fix as part of the review as I normally do. The most serious is a failure against Good article criteria 4 (Neutrality). Will decide soon whether to quick fail or place on hold, either way I'll detail the improvements required. FeydHuxtable (talk) 13:40, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Full review
Im going to fail this which is a shame really as in many ways it rather good. The prose quality is generally excellent, the layout is nice and you've done a great job of capturing most of the key incidents in his life  (it's a bit lite on the family stuff but that's understandable, you could get some great human insterest stuff from the Hassan/Macintyre bio if you wanted.) A simple improvement this needs is to improve the ref format – you have about a dozen bare URLS in there. Not explicitly a Good article criteria but still desirable for an article of this prominence.

The reason for quick failing is due to the neutrality requirement. The article doesnt at all reflect the widespread criticism Ed's leadership has received. In places there seems to be pro Ed bias e.g. - In the months following Miliband's election, Labour overtook the Conservatives in opinion polls for the first time since 2007

The above sentence is cited to a generic poll tracker making it arguably borderline OR;  it implies Ed's leadership was  responsible for Labours Poll success  (serious analysts are almost unanimous on crediting the unpopularity of the coalitions austerity measures, not Eds leadership) If you look at the hundreds of press articles that do specifically talk about Ed and the Polls, youd find pieces like this Clegg more popular than Miliband   (and that was just after the student riots)   or  Labour opens up a gap on the NHS, but Miliband tracks IDS  (polls last month showing  Ed's personal popularity doing worse even than IDS and Howard at a similar stage in their opposition leadersship) I see editor NBeale tried to add some balancing coverage reflecting this but his contributions were rejected. The good news for pro Ed editors (which includes me btw, I think he might turn out to be an even better PM for the nation than Attlee) is that Eds unpopularity may have already bottomed out in mid June. Over the past few weeks his more assertive approach has won a lot of respect both within the party and externally,  and if you wait a few weeks a new poll will likely come out saying his personal popularity is back on the rise.

This is turning in a ramble so to sum up:  A mostly  very nice article but before you re-nom you should address the neutrality issue and fix up the bare URLs. Possibly one of you could get the excellent new bio by Mehdi Hasan and James Macintyre, especially if you plan to progress this all the way to FA level. FeydHuxtable (talk) 15:01, 15 July 2011 (UTC)
 * comment - This review of that book at the Statesman by Steady Eddie seems scathing-ish about the book and says Miliband has referred to it as ''tittle tattle" - "The unusually extensive list of acknowledgements with which Hasan and Macintyre begin their book comes very near to apologising for "the extensive and unavoidable use of the phrases 'private interview' and 'private information'". Unavoidable it may have been, but the frequent appearance of the terms still casts doubt on the legitimacy of much of what the book claims to reveal. That is not to accuse the authors of invention; it is to blame them for repeating stories on which neither they nor the reader can rely. Anonymous informants enjoy the luxury of a free rein to their imagination, and their prejudices" Off2riorob (talk) 23:28, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

comments/improvements

 * I removed the tracker OR comment- In the months following Miliband's election, Labour overtook the Conservatives in opinion polls for the first time since 2007 - Off2riorob (talk) 22:14, 15 July 2011 (UTC)
 * - I also removed this whole in the polls section - it might be relevant in the Labour party article but unless it can be shown to specifically related to the subject in some way it seems leading and suggestive - Off2riorob (talk) 22:23, 15 July 2011 (UTC)
 * - I formatted around a dozen citations. I will go through them all tomorrow...Unless anyone else beats me to it... Off2riorob (talk) 22:50, 15 July 2011 (UTC)


 * In regard to the lack of criticism ...perhaps we can discuss and suggest what is the main criticism/critisisms of him/his actions and expand/add some detail about that? The reviewer said - the article is missing - "the widespread criticism Ed's leadership has received." Off2riorob (talk) 22:17, 15 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Good to see the refs sorted and fair point about the Hassan Bio. To meet criteria 4 and arguably 3a there should be some mention of Eds poor personal ratings since he became leader. Its doesn't need to be as harsh as the entry editor NBeale tried to add, but you could include a sentence such as "A June 2011 poll result from Ipsos MORI found Labor 2 percentage points ahead of the Tories, but Miliband's personal rating was low; he was rated as less popular than Iain Duncan Smith at a similar stage in his opposition leadership."  and source to this FT article   Hundreds of alternative sources come up if you google "ed miliband popularity". Maybe I overstressed the suggestion of pro Ed bias, there is no reason why the article cant reflect much of the extensive posive coverage hes received. If you add even one sentence reflecting the criticism and/or low popularity of his leadership then IMO you could immediately put the article back up for review. Or if you don't want to you could just re-submit it anyway as another reviewer may not consider it essential for NPOV. FeydHuxtable (talk) 10:20, 18 July 2011 (UTC)


 * My thanks to FeydHuxtable for taking the time to review this article. I see Off2riorob has already made a start with the article improvements, which I am pleased with. I am more than happy to renom when your points have been covered. It is unfortunate I don't have more time to actually contribute to this article myself.--Topperfalkon (talk) 23:33, 18 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the comments - I agree something along those lines is required and have added FeydHuxtable's suggestion. Off2riorob (talk) 20:48, 22 July 2011 (UTC)


 * In regard to the lack of criticism, I propose that instead of one sentence mentioning a negative poll that was rendered irrelevant by the hacking scandal, we instead in the Leadership of the Labour Party section create a "Reaction to Miliband as leader" section, similar to the one that can be found on the David Cameron article. In this section could be put most of the critical charges levied against Miliband, and mention quotes from the media which have been negative. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.185.33.106 (talk) 12:03, 11 August 2011 (UTC)
 * The media's critical comments, about what? A section to keep a load of press criticism is not correct according to WP:MOSBNIO - If you have something specific you want to present for addition please present it for discussion, thanks. Off2riorob (talk) 19:41, 11 August 2011 (UTC)
 * You'd better sort out the David Cameron article then hadn't you? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.3.123.54 (talk) 22:45, 16 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I worked on neutrally presenting and supported removal of some such partisan content at the David Cameron biography - if you want to discuss some of the content there please let me know and we can look together, regards. Off2riorob (talk) 01:20, 20 August 2011 (UTC)