Milliband of Brothers

Posted on September 18, 2010 at 08:43 PM

That's the title of a programme I hope I get to see about the tensions the British  Labour Leadership contest has apparently brought to the fore between David and Ed Milliband when it is shown on More4 this Thursday at 9pm. Good title with that hint of drama and it is a docudrama.  There are 5 candidates for this election but by the looks of it the contest will come down to a fight between the two brothers.  This makes it a drama and an epic contest which is how it has been portrayed. 'Milliband of Brothers' will air on the eve of the election.

All 5 candidates have tried to distance themselves from the previous two leaders, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, including the two Milliband brothers.  But it has been portrayed as a play off between successors of Blair and Brown and this is especially the case with the portrayal of the differences between David and Ed Milliband.  David was more of a Blair man and Ed a Brown man, although both worked in Cabinet under both leaders. David Milliband has done his best to distance himself from Tony Blair, with new Labour's shine gone now, but he has not been helped by Blair himself as he publicised his autobiography and in not so many words was considered to have endorsed David.  Ed has been portrayed by his brother's camp of harking back to the days of old Labour.  But not so sure the party members will see those as the bad old days of Labour. Old Labour includes Labour of 1945 to 1951, a Labour Government that achieved the NHS in the aftermath of the second world war.

I met David when he met with representatives of the European Affairs Committee last year. He seemed to me in the mould of new Labour, and Tony Blair,and very telegenic, and very polished. He was impressive. He has spoken during the campaign of building on the achievements of the Labour Government and some of his comments seem of the same middle of the road approach rather than a departure from new Labour. He is doing well in the contest on that platform and was in the lead with it looking to be a close contest between the two brothers on transfers. But his brother Ed is closing in, according to polls.

Ed Milliband is less polished on the face of it, including in a debate by the 5 candidates hosted on Sky that I saw part of, but I think he may have more substance than David, and the type of subtance I think is needed in both Britain and Ireland.  He speaks about the need to address income inequality, something Labour under Blair and Brown did not do. He talks about the need to return to core Labour values and regain traditional Labour support. That message certainly chimes with me, and considering the new Labour approach allowed the speculative capitalism to take place in Britain that has damaged the economy there, I think it might be what the British Labour members might choose too. It will also provide a clearer choice to the Tories/Liberal Democrats at the next election, if they go the traditional right wing road of slash and burn, and policies that do not reduce the gap between rich and poor.

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