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Relax, comrades: David Miliband is Blairesque, rather than Blairite

Matthew d'Ancona

Wednesday, 6th August 2008

Matthew d'Ancona reviews the week in politics

I have news for the comrades, however. All these years, Mr Miliband, a man as ambitious as he is affable, has been harbouring a secret: he isn’t really a Blairite at all. Sure, he was a member of Tony’s gang from the start, backed him immediately as John Smith’s successor and served as his policy chief in opposition and in Number 10 before becoming an MP in 2001. He grasped completely the need for Labour to modernise — and he knew where the action was, too.

It is certainly true, furthermore, that Mr Miliband is Blairesque. English, middle-class, tall and presentable: the semiotic echoes are obvious. Like his mentor, he has an annoying habit of lapsing into Estuary English (to which he adds his own verbal tic of getting plurals wrong, e.g. ‘this has been going on for six month’). Like Mr Blair, he is afflicted by verbless sentences: ‘Ten years in government. New challenges. Time to learn the right lessons and move on.’ And, just like Tony, he loves comparing politics to football: ‘I’m a great believer in the Arsene Wenger school of management’ etc, etc.

But Blairesque is not the same as Blairite: countenance is not the same as ideology. I do not mean to exaggerate the differences between mentor and protégé, but those differences are significant, especially in the current, febrile context.

By the end of his decade in Number 10, Mr Blair had come to a number of fundamental conclusions about the need for really radical reform of the public services. He embraced the argument for dramatic structural changes, especially in education, for greater involvement of the private sector in service delivery, and a recognition that ‘co-payment’ — top-up fees by customers — would be essential in the future. Too late, of course.

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D Webster

August 7th, 2008 8:24am

Calling the Milliband/ Kozak axis 'part of the Labour tribe' stretching things a bit, Miliband Sr. is usually best remembered for his antagonism to the mainstream 'Labour' movement and its accommodations to power.

Searcher

August 7th, 2008 1:42pm

The apple doesn't fall far from the Marxist tree.

Vespasian

August 8th, 2008 3:46pm

Tony Blair English? Since when does being Scotish make you English?

Robert

August 18th, 2008 12:42pm

If Blair is the Poodle then Milli Vanilli is a Chihuahua those pop eyes give it away.

john problem

August 28th, 2008 5:53pm

Milburn for Chancellor? Of course. He was/is a Trotskyite and Trotsky separated from the Bolsheviks because they were for robbing banks to fund the party which Trotsky was not. Good news, eh?

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