This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2013/mar/27/david-miliband-quits-for-ever
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| David Miliband quits: is it for now or for ever? | David Miliband quits: is it for now or for ever? |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The first thing which political activists should do on hearing the news (he's now tweeted it) that David Miliband is stepping down from frontline politics at Westminster and his South Shields constituency is to reach for his CV and check the former foreign secretary's age. Ah, only 47. So this is a drama that may not have reached its conclusion. | The first thing which political activists should do on hearing the news (he's now tweeted it) that David Miliband is stepping down from frontline politics at Westminster and his South Shields constituency is to reach for his CV and check the former foreign secretary's age. Ah, only 47. So this is a drama that may not have reached its conclusion. |
| Why Not? Surely it's the end of New Labour. Can't I hear breakfast champagne corks popping in the more expensive terraces in Islington? Maybe. I'll come back to that. But some Tories live in Islington too. It may be their breakfast celebrations frightening the pigeons. | Why Not? Surely it's the end of New Labour. Can't I hear breakfast champagne corks popping in the more expensive terraces in Islington? Maybe. I'll come back to that. But some Tories live in Islington too. It may be their breakfast celebrations frightening the pigeons. |
| It's easy to follow the explanations being provided as the news breaks this morning. As Nick Watt reports here he's fed up with being part of a "permanent pantomime" in Fleet Street and his party. It monitors his every move and wonders whether he is trying to undercut Ed Miliband, the younger brother who beat him to the Labour leadership in 2010 – or whether he's gearing up to rejoin the shadow cabinet. | |
| It must be tiring. "Miliband goes to the loo. What does he mean by it?" sort of speculation is near-impossible to prevent, though Miliband Major (as Boris Johnson's fellow Etonians would put it) has actually done pretty well on that score since the big unions delivered a hair's-breadth majority in Labour's electoral college to Miliband Minor. | It must be tiring. "Miliband goes to the loo. What does he mean by it?" sort of speculation is near-impossible to prevent, though Miliband Major (as Boris Johnson's fellow Etonians would put it) has actually done pretty well on that score since the big unions delivered a hair's-breadth majority in Labour's electoral college to Miliband Minor. |
| He's busied himself with a mixture of Tyneside constituency duty, good causes and speechmaking, some of which has earned him a few bob. No harm in that, except to leftwing puritans and rightwing hypocrites. | He's busied himself with a mixture of Tyneside constituency duty, good causes and speechmaking, some of which has earned him a few bob. No harm in that, except to leftwing puritans and rightwing hypocrites. |
| A top-flight politician in Britain works much harder than the average banker pulling down a telephone number salary and bonus, a fact that they tactfully keep a secret when they move (not often nowadays) to the City. | A top-flight politician in Britain works much harder than the average banker pulling down a telephone number salary and bonus, a fact that they tactfully keep a secret when they move (not often nowadays) to the City. |
| Miliband was due to make a statement confirming the Mirror's overnight scoop mid-morning on Wednesday. He was expected to say he will be running an international charity, the International Rescue Committee, in New York, a body founded to help rescue refugees from Hitler. His own parents were refugees. A debt of honour, he is telling friends this morning. | Miliband was due to make a statement confirming the Mirror's overnight scoop mid-morning on Wednesday. He was expected to say he will be running an international charity, the International Rescue Committee, in New York, a body founded to help rescue refugees from Hitler. His own parents were refugees. A debt of honour, he is telling friends this morning. |
| Remember, his wife, Louise Shackleton, is an American, a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra whose career may be a factor in the move, as may be their two adopted, American-born children. Spouses who make sacrifices deserve their turn too and for a couple like the Milibands, enjoying some celebrity status, life in the Big Apple will be fun. It's a Democrats' kinda town. | Remember, his wife, Louise Shackleton, is an American, a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra whose career may be a factor in the move, as may be their two adopted, American-born children. Spouses who make sacrifices deserve their turn too and for a couple like the Milibands, enjoying some celebrity status, life in the Big Apple will be fun. It's a Democrats' kinda town. |
| They tell me the UN is based there too. Hmmm. One weakness in Miliband's CV was that he was a child politician with little experience of the outside world. Highbrow leftwing academics for parents, comprehensive school in hothouse north London, Oxford (a stint at Massachusetts Institute of Technology too, so he speaks rudimentary American) and then into professional politics, via thinktank-dom. Tony Blair wanted a heavyweight outsider to head his policy unit, but David got the job by default. Parachuted into South Shields in 2001, the rest was ministerial history. | |
| His departure will make life easier for Mili Mi. Ed must genuinely have hoped to have his big brother back around the shadow cabinet table after the bitterness which marred the later stages of the leadership contest – and the narrow outcome which must have shocked him almost as much as it did his defeated. All the same it simplifies life for the Labour leadership as the 2015 election looms, albeit at the price of losing a heavyweight. | His departure will make life easier for Mili Mi. Ed must genuinely have hoped to have his big brother back around the shadow cabinet table after the bitterness which marred the later stages of the leadership contest – and the narrow outcome which must have shocked him almost as much as it did his defeated. All the same it simplifies life for the Labour leadership as the 2015 election looms, albeit at the price of losing a heavyweight. |
| It is especially helpful for Ed Balls. As Nick Watt notes, David Miliband's backbench intervention in a recent economic debate – I clocked it myself here – triggered speculation that he really ought to take over the shadow chancellor's job from Balls, who has what Stalinists used to call "a spoiled biography" – closely associated with the discredited regime of Gordon Brown. The Balls CV clouds Labour's efforts to apologise for economic error and move on. The Tories love him. | |
| Well, the "bring on David" line in easy journalism (it's fun too) is now closed down this side of the 2015 election. The Labour narrative at this point talks cheerfully of a Labour win against the dispirited and divided coalition. David knows Ed will make a great PM, that eternal optimist, Tessa Jowell, has just said on air. | Well, the "bring on David" line in easy journalism (it's fun too) is now closed down this side of the 2015 election. The Labour narrative at this point talks cheerfully of a Labour win against the dispirited and divided coalition. David knows Ed will make a great PM, that eternal optimist, Tessa Jowell, has just said on air. |
| In his letter to Ed, David says that their shared goal of "making this a one-term government is achievable". That's a touch cautious, I'd say. | In his letter to Ed, David says that their shared goal of "making this a one-term government is achievable". That's a touch cautious, I'd say. |
| Do the comrades really believe it? Not in my experience, they don't. Many thoughtful MPs and activists are quietly gloomy. Labour's lead in the polls should be much greater at this stage in the cycle than the 10-point advantage it currently enjoys. Voters are hacked off with the recession and with politics – as coming fourth in Eastleigh's byelection reminded Labour. The Times columnist Rachel Sylvester this week highlighted another simmering threat to success: he called it "digital Bennism" creeping back online. | Do the comrades really believe it? Not in my experience, they don't. Many thoughtful MPs and activists are quietly gloomy. Labour's lead in the polls should be much greater at this stage in the cycle than the 10-point advantage it currently enjoys. Voters are hacked off with the recession and with politics – as coming fourth in Eastleigh's byelection reminded Labour. The Times columnist Rachel Sylvester this week highlighted another simmering threat to success: he called it "digital Bennism" creeping back online. |
| Miliband's decision to seek work abroad may be easily understood on the Tyne – where plenty have to do that – but, if there are adverse local factors, the coming byelection could be tricky even though – here are the stats – the seat has been held by Whig, Liberal or Labour since it was created by the Great Reform Act of 1832. The BBC's Nick Robinson dared say that no Tory will win this time either, though a young hopeful called Michael Fabricant garnered 11,031 votes in 1987 – almost exactly half the Labour vote. | Miliband's decision to seek work abroad may be easily understood on the Tyne – where plenty have to do that – but, if there are adverse local factors, the coming byelection could be tricky even though – here are the stats – the seat has been held by Whig, Liberal or Labour since it was created by the Great Reform Act of 1832. The BBC's Nick Robinson dared say that no Tory will win this time either, though a young hopeful called Michael Fabricant garnered 11,031 votes in 1987 – almost exactly half the Labour vote. |
| The intriguing question is what would happen if Labour loses in 2015 or (far more likely?) fails to win an overall majority and is forced into coalition with those flexible Lib Dems? Might Mili Major have a role as the man acceptable to both parties? Probably not. Can a defeated older brother ever re-establish himself? Again probably not. | The intriguing question is what would happen if Labour loses in 2015 or (far more likely?) fails to win an overall majority and is forced into coalition with those flexible Lib Dems? Might Mili Major have a role as the man acceptable to both parties? Probably not. Can a defeated older brother ever re-establish himself? Again probably not. |
| But in May 2015 he'll still be a few weeks short of 50, a mere boy by most international standards except in Britain's current political youth culture. As Peter Mandelson told the BBC today: "If I can come back David Miliband can come back. Don't rule out anything. Politics is so much more fluid than it used to be." | But in May 2015 he'll still be a few weeks short of 50, a mere boy by most international standards except in Britain's current political youth culture. As Peter Mandelson told the BBC today: "If I can come back David Miliband can come back. Don't rule out anything. Politics is so much more fluid than it used to be." |
| That's true too, even though it may annoy you to hear Mandelson saying so. | That's true too, even though it may annoy you to hear Mandelson saying so. |