Should someone be stigmatised for the views of their father?

[Rodo]

Should someone be stigmatised for the views of their father? Does having a father with extreme Marxist views necessarily mean that those views will have rubbed off fully on his sons? Should we take the view that it has to have done? I suppose it stands to reason that some of those views will have been assimilated, but couldn't they have been tempered with time into something more objective?

Don't get me wrong - I can't stand Ed Milliband. I just ponder on these things that's all.

Someone in one of the newspapers likened the concept of this to Hitler's labelling a person a Jew simply because his grandfather was a practising Jew, whether or not the original person still actively followed the faith or not. Hmmm........makes you think.

[TheOstrich]

On the face of it, you've raised a good point, Rodo - but Ed Milliband is running for high office and I believe, therefore, that we do have a right to know of his background, and that includes how his views may have been formulated.

What I don't agree with is the way the DM turned this particular case into a personal vendetta.

[Suff]

Exactly what Ossie said.

If they had highlighted the fact that his father was a rabid communist and that he held extreme sway over students and his children, I wouldn't have minded that much. Any politician has to expect that their family must come under scrutiny. One of the reasons I have never gone into politics.

However, what the DM did was to try and destroy the father to get at the son. This is poor technique and a very bad precedent to set. Typical of the DM and I think they should be slapped for it.

Also I have to admit that Mrs S came from a rabid labourite family, her brother is borderline communist. Yet, Mrs s is a floating voter with Tory leanings. Whilst I'm willing to make an exception in the case of the milibands..... You can't assume because the father was a rabid Trotskyite that the sons are too.....

[Workingman]

Stigmatised? No. However, it is fair to ask what influence the father, the equally radical mother, and family life might have had on the sons.

There is not much evidence that Ed is, or has been, a communist. There is plenty of evidence that he is an ideologue - empty vessel - an opportunist and totally lacking in conviction. As a student and member of the Oxford Union he was a Socialist of the left. He declared that democracy was a means to an end. He has surrounded himself with advisers of the left, some quite far left. These things have not happened by accident. But probably the most damning thing about Ed Miliband is that we do not know what he really stands for; his light is well and truly hidden under more than one bushel.

[Aggers]

I don't think that the views of parents are necessarily passed on to their children.

In my case, I deliberately took the opposite views of my father on several issues.

[Suff]

Absolutely true there Aggers.

As you can imagine, I come from a fairly middle class family with a long services history and also a long private business history.

My Brother is a rabid Blair/Brownite who thinks that they did a "pretty good job" and it was all the fault of those capitalist bankers.....

There are exceptions, especially in very strong willed people. But, then again, our parents did not preach. Although it was clear what their viewpoint was. We were free to disagree, but we had to give a good clear reasoned answer or we would be dismissed.