Why the Brownites would love Milburn to back Miliband

TrevorH

I do wonder about you 'established' columnists ...

Just what hss Milburn ever achieved exactly?

Tommy Judd

Matthew, given what you've said here, could it be that this story was floated by Brownites? I cannot see what's in it for either Miliband or Milburn for this story to get out. Indeed, I find it hard to believe that either of these men is sharing out cabinet positions already. For obvious reasons, you probably know Miliband fairly well. Does he do hubris on this scale?

martin daytona

"The key to keeping Miliband in his box is to caricature him as a puppet of the neo-Blairite faction"

Sorry to contradict Mr D'Ancona, knowing how fond he is of David Miliband, but the latter really IS a puppet of the neo-Blairite faction, no matter whom else he attracted into his plot.

Tiberius

TrevorH: Milburn has achieved nothing, but he is next best, after Blair, in making the New Labour lie sound plausible to voters.

He is a danger to the Tories.

anthony a

Why would Mr Milburn want to rejoin the government now?

The only reason I can think of is to become the answer to a question in some future trivia quiz on who was the shortest serving Chancellor.

Paul Linford

IMHO Milburn should be standing himself, not playing second fiddle to a man who entered the Commons nearly a decade later. But I guess your piece goes partly towards explaining why he isn't a candidate.

Max Kaye

I do worry about our Editor...

How can one admire anyone who served in a Blair government?

Sure they may have 'talents'. But so did Albert Speer...
As for Simon Jenkins, his article is mostly tosh - like most of his opinions over the years. (I first lost all respect for him when as a member of the great and good of the Millennium Committee he endorsed and promoted the appalling waste of space and money then known as the Millennium Dome. Nothing he has said or done since then has re-established his credibility.)

Ian C

Milburn did achieve, amidst great secrecy at the time, the introduction of the private sector to the Health Service. That he subsequently walked away I have always assumed was due to his realisation that it was hijacked by the DofH and the asylum was taken over by the inmates.

This is a simple left-right Labour party tussle where the left will always win, in the long run. Best not to get distracted by the personnel involved. The right won the last battle in 1994-7 because Blair was smart, had the backing of the left after years in opposition and had 3 years to get ready for the death of an already dis-reputed and tired Tory govt.

In 2008-10 none of these conditions exist and Labour have blown every major policy they set out to deliver in the time that they have had a dominant majority in the HofC. Why would anyone vote them back just because of a few face changes?

Silent Hunter

Great picture of Milburn!

Labours answer to Inspector Blake from On The Buses.

All he needs is a peaked cap and a Hitler moustache and we can almost hear him saying......"I hate you Butler"

Only in this case it's.......

" I hate you, Brown" LOL

Frank Pulley

Matthew are you deliberately provoking the punters on this blog, or do you really have an affinity with the lefty lovies? Was there a change of political affiliation when the Shepherd's Bush boyos bought this magazine? I know Andrew doesn't allow himself to be pinned down politically, but the general tenor of the political message here is not clear cut anymore. Is it a conservative mag. or not? Fraser, James and yourself all gush over various stars in the enemy camp and allow them to write their propaganda here, too, from time to time. What gives? I think we subscribers need to be told. There are only a couple of years to the election at most. What we need is relentless, attack, attack, attack! A limp opposition has led to the country being sold off in sections. Is that what you want? Milburn is a North Eastern labourite with an oily sheen and a very irritating condescending manner - a sort of Melvin Barg with an inferior grade of bullshit.

I would have thought that Milibollix the Younger is anxious to suborn him; that it's more likely that Milburn's arrogance would gag on being No.2. when he sees the main chance for himself. Getting his family into No.10 would be one way of 'spending more time with 'em". God help us if we have to witness all that 'restless energy' that you so admire being midwived by the the MSM in the star role, particularly as he seems to have good friends on the Speccie.

Steve Richards, Purnell, the Milibandits all get a very good press from the Editorial staff here. Just as well the commentary restores the balance. I'd like to think that you are just about cunning enough to tee them up for the commentary by feigning the admiration, but like Max Kaye, I'm beginning to wonder.

Surprised you haven't fixed up a boondoggle in Peking btw! Who's covering the Olympics?

Marian C

Frank Pulley @7:29; Well said Sir

Marian C

Silent Hunter@7:28; Very funny, your spot on :)

Tiberius

Frank; I wouldn't use the word admire myself, but you have to recognize (better word) Milburn is a New Labour heavyweight. I'm sure the journos' intention is only to demonstrate potential threats to the Tories, even if the language is sometimes distastefully complimentary.

TGF UKIP wouldn't agree with you anyway - Matt and Fraser in particular are in Cameron's pocket acording to his interpretation.

Frank Pulley

Tiberius

I don't think I would accuse them of being in the pocket of anyone; if I thought that I'd be out of here and my subscription would be cancelled. It's the naivety that irritates me. I'm just appalled that they extol perceived virtues in these manifestly prattish parvenues (from my viewpoint anyway) in this magazine; after what we have witnessed for the past ten years I consider the whole bunch of NuLab layabouts to be beyond contempt; jumped-up- never-come-down crypto-Marxist theorists, with personal ambition as the spur, quietly humming the internationale and following Gramsci's tenets to the letter. What concerns me even more, and I have said this on other threads, is that some of the Tory front bench also resonate with part of the counter-cultural hegemonic ethos. If it's a ploy, then it's dangerous; if it's a sign that the rot has eaten into parts that other Marxists have not reached (and I take into account Burgess, McLean et al) then we are truly lost.

Nick

Milburn often reminds me of that other Geordie Messiah Kevin Keegan. Arrives in a job with a big fanfare, then after a while it starts to go wrong. Cue dramatic exit, and withdrawal from government/management to spend more time with the family/on the golf course. A few years later he's tempted back to have another go, and the cycle repeats.

Frank Pulley

Btw I referred to Miliband the Younger in my previous comment, I did of course mean the Elder. It was a Freudian slip - it's difficult to believe there's anybody younger in 'top level' politics at present.