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| Mr Miliband said only the reckless would ignore the protesters at St Paul's Cathedral |
The
protests at St Paul's Cathedral are "danger signals" and reflect the
concerns of millions of people, Labour leader Ed Miliband has said.
Writing in
the Observer, Mr Miliband said the protesters reflected a wider crisis in
confidence about the values of those in business and politics.
And ex-bank
chairman Ken Costa told the Sunday Telegraph the finance industry had lost
sight of the need to do good.
The protest
against corporate greed began on 15 October at the London site.
In the
newspaper article, Mr Miliband warned "only the most reckless" would
ignore the Occupy London protest and others around the world.
"The
challenge is that they reflect a crisis of concern for millions of people about
the biggest issue of our time: the gap between their values and the way our
country is run.
"I am
determined that mainstream politics, and the Labour Party in particular, speaks
to that crisis and rises to the challenge," he said.
'Crisis'
Mr Miliband
said many people would not agree with the protesters, but he warned that people
felt "let down" by aspects of business, finance and politics which
"seem in touch with the richest 1% - but badly out of touch with the
reality facing the other 99%".
Record
unemployment, rising inflation, squeezed living standards and turmoil in the
eurozone added to the "sense that the economy is on the brink", he
said.
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| Protesters have been outside the central London cathedral since 15 October |
He went on
to say "business as usual is not an option" and "productive,
responsible behaviour which benefits business and most people in the long
term" was the way forward.
"In
every generation, there comes a moment when the existing way of doing things is
challenged," Mr Miliband said.
"It
happened in 1945. It happened in 1979 and again in 1997. This is another of
those moments because the deeper issues raised by the current crisis are too
important to be left shivering on the steps of St Paul's."
BBC
political correspondent Carole Walker said Prime Minister David Cameron had
been far more cautious in his response to the protests.
Last week,
Mr Cameron said the Archbishop of Canterbury had spoken for the whole country
when he called for greater responsibility at the top of society.
'Disastrous
consequences'
But the PM
has also said the freedom to demonstrate does not include the freedom to pitch
a tent anywhere in London.
Meanwhile,
the banker chosen by St Paul's Cathedral to head a group looking to reconnect
"the financial with the ethical" has warned that the market economy
has "managed to slip its moral moorings" with "disastrous
consequences".
Writing in
the Sunday Telegraph, the former chairman of Lazards Investment Bank, Ken
Costa, said the finance industry had lost sight of the need to do good as well
as make money.
Mr Costa,
who helps to promote the Alpha Course, which is an introduction to the
Christian faith, said maximising shareholder returns should no longer be the
"sole criteria" for judging how a company is run.
But he
insisted the market economy was the most successful system yet devised for
improving living standards, and that there was a moral imperative to create
wealth.
Last week,
the Corporation of London abandoned plans to take legal action to try to force
the estimated 200 protesters to leave the site outside the cathedral.
In what was
described as a "great U-turn" by the Occupy London Stock Exchange
group, the corporation made an offer to allow the protesters to stay until 2012
but urged them to "shrink" the size of the camp to enable it to clear
the public highway.
Cathedral
authorities have invited the activists to take part in negotiations to try to
end the demonstration.
The Occupy
London campaign said the corporation's offer would lead to it leaving St Paul's
on an agreed date in 2012.
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