I had the pleasure of meeting David Miliband, albeit very briefly, on Monday night. Well, rather than a meeting it was more him walking past, saying something, and me swooning. Visibly. Anyway, swooning aside, he is a very nice chap. Personable, decent, seems clever enough.
But to tell the truth, I am extremely glad that he hasn’t thrown his hat into the ring for the Labour leadership contest. He has done himself justice in the past few weeks. Despite the pressure on him he has remained remarkably level headed and aware of the fact that running against Gordon Brown would do him no good at all. Instead, he has shown incredible loyalty to his ally, and agreed to back him all the way to Number 10. Labour needs loyalty like this right now.
It will also give him time to become better known to the electorate- to make his mark- which will stand him in good stead for future cabinet reshuffles, and when the time arrives to appoint Brown’s successor he will be ready to take the reigns, should he even want to.
Hats off to a sensible politician.
Not sensible, just very clever. He could probably win and become what?, the leader of a totally discredited political party that will take a decade to get any credence with the electorate, and he would have Brown sniping away at him for ever.
His day may come in two years time when they loose the next general election and the Labour party stops and has a look at itself and what Blair, Brown and all the little sheep that follow them, has turned the party into.