No way back for Miliband

David Miliband has now gone so far he can’t go back. But could this be his “botched election” moment? His appearance on the Jeremy Vine show went well, inasmuch as the callers lined up to denounce Brown and he seemed to engage with them well. His defence of Brown was again so weak that it would be read as a provocation. Brown was a good chancellor and has given us values we can go forward with, says Miliband, with a valedictory tone, as if to say, “go now, and go gracefully”.

Brown must either destroy him, isolate him or yield to him. But Miliband cannot pretend nothing has happened. He has started a war with the most ferocious street fighter in Westminster. He must either finish this fight, or be destroyed. I am told his article was intended to signal “come and get me, Labour party”. That’s not how it works.