Grabbing at straws…
What is David Miliband doing? He lets close contacts tell the press he want the leadership. And then he denies it in public. Very perverse indeed.
Several explanations suggest themselves. Perhaps…
- Miliband is trying to undermine Brown with a whispering campaign before standing.
- Miliband lacks the courage to stand, as he did last year, and is letting others do the dirty work for him.
- Miliband has little or no control over his close contacts.
Or, alternatively, it’s all happening in private and I’m grabbing at straws. This seems most likely.
Whatever the case - he needs to issue a clear statement on his position soon, and end all speculation. The alternative is to appear a hopeless ditherer.
And that’s done Brown’s image so much good…
He has got a clear position: nothing is happening.
Somehow the image of a coterie of allies just as keen as I am on him becoming the new Labour leader {New New Labour leader?} decided that they’d take a measure to give him a nudge and proclaimed him interested without asking him to try and give the process a shunt along.
It’s the best explanation I can think of {Miliband isn’t stupid enough to imagine that any process involving a public denial of interest would assist any attempt} but still pretty damn strange. I don’t consider it to show his handlers as out of control, because frankly I doubt anyone would be able to stamp out such an odd pattern of behaviour.