As monotonous as this has become it seems that another post on Miliband is necessary. I had assumed that Ali’s original post on the matter effectively said all that there was to say but it seems that even he disagreed with me. Because we must now not only write on the article itself, but the drama surrounding it.

Curiously though, the two seem almost entirely disconnected. For all the furore the actual article in question is modest: heavy on the praise of New Labour achievements and vicious towards Cameron instead of Brown. This is no offensive, overt or otherwise.

So why have things reached the stage where Miliband is being called an “Immature, self-serving traitor”? Why has the once vaguely hazy and mildly distant prospect of a leadership contest become suddenly sharp, immediate? Why is Denis MacShane salivating?

So far as I can tell this is part the obvious: desire amongst the media for a story as we enter silly season, desire of marginal MPs to preserve their careers through whatever means necessary (desperate thrashings made especially pathetic by their obvious collective uncertainty as to what path, if any, will lead them towards salvation) and basic knives-out for Brown motion from his enemies and knives-out for Miliband from Brown’s allies.

But there is, perhaps, something more here: the shock to the system of somebody actually staging a decent counter attack against the Tories leaving a distracting but significant aftermath. For despite all the non sequiturious blather surrounding it his piece was in fact related to the Tories and how Labour could defeat them, rather than Brown and why he should be deposed. Miliband’s suggestions consisted of emphasising Cameron’s nature (personally I find him more mindless opportunist than instinctive conservative, but his case is convincing), emphasising Labour successes (such as they are) and finding a new platform to keep mutation of the Labour brand ahead of Tory antibodies.

Of these three methods only the final truly relates to the leadership at all. But together the three constitute a fine list of suggestions for destroying the Tories electorally. As the aforelinked MacShane suggests it could simply be a matter of contrast between the implicitly poor Brown and the masterfully executed rallying cries of Miliband (one wonders whether Denis has an eye on a new cabinet position, if so he has almost certainly calculated wisely) but I would suggest that Miliband’s tone is part of a distinctive and winning form of political dialogue: assertive leftism.

More shall be written on this point later but for now suffice it to say that Miliband has marshaled this technique in a fashion which the dreary present leader of the Labour Party and the harridan misandrist who is apparently going to become his challenger are streets behind on. It is just a pity that his skill has led to an ironic cloud of purely Labour related dust. The Tories should not grow complacent, though: they have escaped unscathed for now; but his attacks on them and refusal to accept their subtle agenda-setting are bound to draw eyes towards their grimy underbelly soon enough.