Tag: David Miliband

The brothers, a drama in several acts

The press’s  obsession with the psychodrama of Ed vs David Miliband is becoming completely ridiculous.  Ed’s speech yesterday was reported through the prism of how it might affect David; the news today is still about how David might feel about being beaten  by his little brother and the psychological damage each might have inflicted on the other.  At time of writing this, MiliD hasn’t announced whether or not he’s staying on in front line politics.  I assume he’s not, just to avoid  five years of fending off stories about fraternal rivalry, feuding  and factionalism led by the pop-psychologists of Fleet Street and the BBC.

I suggest this as a possible text for his statement this afternoon, and then a long holiday.

The Dr Seuss guide to Labour

Upon an island hard to reach,/ The East Beast sits upon his beach/ Upon the west beach sits the West Beast./ Each beach beast thinks he’s the best beast. /Which beast is best?…Well, I thought at first/ That the East was best and the West was worst. /Then I looked again from the west to the east/ And I liked the beast on the east beach least.

Labour leadership election ballot papers go out today and I still have no idea who to vote for. I’m unable to make up my mind between MiliE and MiliD and  increasingly infuriated by the family-at-war,  feuding brothers storyline that the media seem to have decided is the narrative for the election.  I may just have repeatedly missed all the papers’ in-depth coverage of the Balls/Burnham/Abbott campaigns, family histories and relationships with Blair/Brown; but it’s hard to avoid the feeling that it’s been decided somewhere  that the right answer is a Miliband.  Now, which one?