No matter what David Miliband may say in public (Radio 2, 1hr 7mins in) following his article in the Guardian, there is now little doubt amongst those in the Westminster bubble that he has thrown his hat into the PMs ring (phnar phnar). For a start Fraser Nelson says that there is "No way back for Miliband" Fraser claims that Miliband has as good as said: "with a valedictory tone, 'go now, and go gracefully'," and that: "Brown must either destroy him, isolate him or yield to him."Before I go any further I will set out my stall on this situation. I dislike Gordon Brown with a passion and I am 100% certain that he will lead this country into further ruin. Brown embodies everything that turned me from being a life long Labour supporter into a Conservative party member. Brown is a spinning, incompetent, dithering, self serving arse of the first order. I don't for one minute believe that Brown is a "conviction politician", such a politician would never consider scrapping the 10p tax rate just to win over middle England. Such a politician would never hit families with phony "Green Taxes" in a time of economic hardship. Such a politician would never deny dumping on the countries poorest until forced to do a U-turn.
I think Miliband should go for it, and go hard. I honestly believe he can only do better than Brown as long as he does it with honesty. This country has been turned off politics not only through sleaze on all sides, but through the outright lies we have had to endure from New Labour. Every time a Minister appears on TV we now assume that they are lying, and usually we a right. Miliband's best attack would be to go all out on a honesty campaign. He must be the man to tell the truth about crime, health, education and our broken society. Instead of spewing out tractor production figures and blaming the Tories for what they did in the last century, he needs to tell us how he's going to fix Britain.
Will Miliband do this? I don't know, but it is the only way he, or any other potential Labour leader can bring their party back from oblivion. Listening to his radio interview earlier today it's obvious that he has the backing of the public, even if it's because they can't stand Brown.
So I say: Go for it David Miliband - but go in hard and promise a new era of honest politics.
UPDATE: Nick Robinson also believes that Miliband is on a war footing with Gordon brown:
Extraordinary, quite extraordinary. Anyone listening to David Miliband taking phone calls on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show could be in no doubt. This is a man testing the waters for a leadership bid and a man simply unprepared to come to the defence of a beleaguered prime minister.
If there is a Miliband poll bounce which is quite likely given the favourable publicity he's had and the extraordinary unpopularity of the prime minister, Labour MPs will begin to assess whether he's the man who might save their skins. In other words this will produce a momentum of its own.
7 comments:
To be fair Steve, I think he only appears to have the backing of the public because:
a) He's not Gordon Brown
b) The BBC want to save Labour, so allow the calls in that give DM an easy ride.
In the long-term, I still think the public will see this for what it actually is. It's nothing to do with wanting to take Labour in a different direction, or wanting to do some good for the country. If it was about doing all that he would have run against Brown last time. It's because he doesn't want to see Labour kicked out of power, and that is very different from wanting to keep them in power by doing good things.
Miliband is arrogant, rude (in pulling faces when others are speaking) and I don't like him.
In short 1000% better than Brown
Whatever his strategy is, it is a high risk one. I have a couple of theories, but they both sound so far fetched, I won't put them into print, however the way events are developing I may be proved right.
I don't like Miliband at all but he is far better than Brown.
As I commented on Obnoxio's post on the same subject:
"Mr Milligram looks to me like a jumped-up policy wonk, a smart, cynical and strangely self-ignorant boffin. He needs to stay in the back room."
He's a pretty boy, I'll grant you, but that doesn't make him better than Brown, or "who's a pretty boy, then?" Blair. Give him a mirror, a little ladder and a cuttlefish.
Think Milliband has miscalculated and shown his inexperience.
I'm reminded by Littlejohn that Miliband is the twat responsible for our bins only being emptied every other week.
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