“Fratricide”
Vincent: It’s a tight battle for the Labour leadership. If your younger brother Ed wins, will you serve under him?
David Miliband: I’ve committed myself to serve my constituents in South Shields and I have committed myself to British politics. – Sunday Mirror
“I would definitely serve under David if he wins. I would expect him to do that same because that’s what he has said. But if I win, that will be his decision.” Ed Miliband – Sunday Mirror
So, a “well-placed*” source tells the Guardian that while David Cameron would like Ed Miliband to be the next leader of the Labour party, he thinks the party would be best-advised to select Ed’s brother David. This news, scarcely earth-shattering to anyone who isn’t already a Labour party member (and obvious even to many of those that are) has Labour types suspecting some Deep Tory Game is Afoot. – The Spectator’s Alex Massie.
I’ll tell you what a personal attack looks like. It looks like the young people who held up banners and placards reading “Ed Speaks Human” at Ed Miliband’s leadership campaign launch in May. That attempt to project the younger brother as slightly less geeky than the elder one was unworthy but not entirely misconceived. – John Rentoul, Independent.
As Labour leader, I would be determined to do so and I believe we could build wide electoral support for a more responsible, more equal, more just economy. It requires retaining what New Labour got right but moving on from what it got wrong. We must have the courage to change. – Ed Miliband, Guardian.
Life after leadership
The Blairs are believed to have been looking in earnest for a house on the former British colony, which has long been their favoured holiday destination, for at least three months. According to sources, hundreds of digital photographs of for-sale properties have been emailed to the couple. – Telegraph.
This week, 16 years after becoming Labour’s leader, Blair publishes his memoir of what followed, an odyssey that moves from Brighton to Washington, taking in Iraq and Kosovo along the way. In those years he changed the Labour Party, became its most successful leader. Now, ironically, in the few weeks left till it elects a new leader, it is Blair’s story, his journey, that has left Labour still searching for its lost soul. –Herald Scotland.
The final stages
Overall, the race so far has been characterised by a similar lack of philosophical depth. Ed Balls has been an articulate and forceful critic of the Coalition’s policies, but neither he nor any of the other candidates has begun the process of reconsidering Labour’s core values. – Telegraph.
Even last week’s draw for the group stages of the Champions League – which seemed to drag on for about two days – didn’t last as long as the contest for the leadership of the Labour Party is taking. The race’s problem is not just its length, although God knows party officials must shorten it next time around, but it has failed to spark any interest beyond the party itself. – Wales on Sunday.
Tags: Blair, Labour, Labour leadership, massie, milibands, rentoul
What does a personal attack look like? Well, it’s normally by-lined ‘John Rentoul’…