Well, well…
Miliband makes me seem all prescient.
Not that this was what I was expecting. A seemingly non sequitorious reference to the admittedely influential expanding Indian and Chinese middle classes seems typical of him. He has clearly embraced his brief as foreign secretary. He has also demanded quite a substantial amount from the government, certainly more than it has delivered thus far and, as the article mentions, he has not stated that Brown is a figure the party is dependent upon.
No, Miliband desires that Labour find itself a new soul. This is crucial to his argument that Cameron can not defeat Labour fully: if Labour can alter itself away from New Labour, Miliband suggests, the Tories will remain one step behind. Of the two assessments of the situation I find his entirely superior to Harman’s. Miliband seems to recognise, or at least is the only member of the Labour Party willing to admit, that the damage done to his party is deep. Perhaps Harman is restricted through her forced smile after one smashing defeat after another became stuck (I always found it quite unkind how she was expected to do the PR mop-up on national television time and time again…) but she has expressed no concern as to Labour’s direction.
Miliband, meanwhile, is steets ahead of not only her but the rest of the Labour high rankers. In this article in April he outlined what he thought Labour had to become in order to surive: a creature distinct from its 2001 incarnation and instead on informed by radical liberals and social democrats, something which I found most pleasing seeing as these are my favourite forms of leftist in history. Perhaps as good he is conscious of the enormity of the task facing Britain if it is to do its part in averting environment catastrophe: what is required is not merely a shift in policy but an entirely new structure for the economy, in lieu of rampant engorgement on petrol.
Miliband’s vision is given a new urgency by the dire state that Labour has plunged into: now the party’s future effectively rests upon whether it can be convincingly and winningly realised. It would be a remarkable achievement were it accomplished, and I suspect that in private Miliband shares my severe doubt that Brown is the man to do as much. No, to implement the vision there is none better than the visionary.
Posted in: Leadership Crisis, Political Ideology, The New New Labour Project
The second photo you add here seems brilliantly appropriate. He took so long trying to get the perfect opportunity for a good photo that the tide receded! I am glad somebody has blinked first, but please let’s not pretend it is timely. Machinations are all very well and good, but action should have been taken seconds after the results came through from Glasgow, not days.