EdStone

About

The EdStone refers to a large stone tablet commissioned by the British Labour Party during the 2015 United Kingdom general election. The stone was devised to set a list of promises by the Labour Party for the 2015 Labour Party and was named after then-party leader Ed Miliband.

Origin

Ahead of the 2015 United Kingdom general election, Ed Miliband unveiled a tablet stating six commitments that a Labour government would do in an event that they would win the general election. On May 3rd, 2015, he unveiled the tablet in the parking lot. On the tablet, several party commitments were inscribed.^[1] They include:

# A strong economic foundation
# Higher living standards for working families
# An NHS with the time to care
# Controls on immigration
# A country where the next generation can do better than the last
# Homes to buy and action on rents

The plaque would be erected into the Downing Street Gardens if Labour had won the general election.

Spread

The stone became the subject of widespread criticism and mockery. In a 2015 editorial, The Guardian^[2] wrote, "Ed Miliband has just raised the stupidity bar still higher."

On Twitter,^[3] people mocked the tablet, referring to it as EdStone and tagging jokes about the story with the hashtag "#EdStone" (examples below).

Various news media posted segments in which people reacting to the tablet (examples below, left). After the stone was revealed, it was heavily mocked by politicians and members of the public who compared it to Moses' ten commandment stones (example below, right).

Various Examples

External References