So what’s all the fuss about today, then? Ah, yes, the election of the new Labour
leader. We should know the result around 1640 this afternoon – but, this morning, most commentators are indulging in the idea that Ed has won it. The younger Miliband and his team said to be
optimistic, his elder brother less so. At the very least, a remarkable turnaround has taken place. Just before the contest began, MiliD was some way ahead of his sibling in the bookies’ calculations. Now, Ladbrokes have
suspended betting on MiliE.
What happens today, though, is in some respects less important than what happens tomorrow. Today will be the day for triumph and commiseration, for tubthumping speeches about taking Labour back
into government. Tomorrow will be the day for a more microscopic look at what the new Labour leader believes, and where he wants to take his party. The winning Miliband will be interviewed on Marr
tomorrow morning, and that should give us a clearer sense of his stance on the deficit. Will he refuse to back down from the Alistair Darling plan? Will he veer towards the Ed Balls plan? Or will
he delay his decision – as Balls coveniently suggests – until the shadow chancellor has been selected? The answers to those questions will shape the political battleground of the next
few years.
David Cameron already has gaze directed towards the real fight. “We have this biggest deficit in Britain’s peacetime history and [Labour] seem to have no answer,” he says in
interview with the Telegraph today. The
hope will be that he can still say that after the Spending Review.
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