The Daily Mail: raising the minimum wage = bad old days

The Daily Mail is famous for trashy tabloid journalism but here I will focus on the headline of one of their main stories. This was not the story that the Daily Mail led with, but is was clearly the second most important story on the page. The heading was second from the top and written in the second biggest letters.
Here's their heading of a story about a speech by British Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband, which I found very interesting...

Back to the bad old days: Fixing energy prices, grabbing land from property firms, boosting the minimum wage: Red Ed revives 70s socialism.

They say 'back to the bad old days' but then they follow that statement up with pretty suspicious commentary. 
It's bad to fix energy prices? So we want energy companies to be able to charge through the roof and then we won't be living in the bad old days anymore? Doesn't really resonate with me but perhaps I'm missing something...
It's also bad to grab land from property firms apparently, which again doesn't really resonate with me because offhand it seems like an odd thing to do for corrupt, power-hungry reasons. Sometimes companies just get too big and can take over the country like has happened in America. But again, I acknowledge that it's possible I'm missing something.
But the last comment is where they lose me completely. RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE? The implication of this heading is that socialism wrecked Britain in the 1970s. I may not know much about politics in the UK, but I think I can guarantee that raising the minimum wage did not destroy Britain in the 70s.
Then they pair 'raising the minimum wage' with comments like 'socialism' and 'Red Ed' as if to imply that wanting to raise the minimum wage makes you a  radical or Communist.

Then the story used THIS picture of Ed Miliband (as well as three normal-looking ones), where he's got his eyes shut and his tongue stuck between his teeth. (Not that I wouldn't do the same thing to someone I don't like, but this is a blog and not a professional newspaper.)

Oops. Is that a bad photo? The Daily Mail didn't notice.


According to the Daily Mail, Ed also pushed for the following reforms (I don't know what some of them mean):

• Grab land from owners who fail to build on it;

• Reverse housing benefit cuts;

• Force firms in key sectors to pay employees a higher rate under the minimum wage laws;

• Penalise companies that fail to take on apprentices and trainees;

•  Stop rural communities objecting to urban sprawl and new towns;

•  Fund a business rate freeze for small firms by hitting 80,000 medium and large employers;

•  Give 16- and 17-year-olds the vote.