Polly Toynbee’s article in today’s Guardian is really quite remarkable. She’s certainly cooled towards Brown and his government over recent months. But now the split is complete and unequivocal. Here’s what she has to say about the Prime Minister’s reshuffle plans:
“It’s all too late. No one listens to a leader once 85% of people decide he is ‘not up to the job’, as in this week’s YouGov poll. It needs someone untrammelled by the past to change direction now.”
And who should that someone be? Toynbee certainly rhapsodises enough about David Miliband. His Guardian op-ed is described as a “sketched outline of radical policies”. And his appearance on the Jeremy Vine Show apparently showed him in “a new light”, and at “breezy ease” with the situation.
Toynbee’s enthusiasm reveals just how well Miliband’s actions have worked – in one respect, at least. By striking early, he’s put himself at the forefront of many Labour supporters’ minds, and perhaps extended his support beyond his natural, ideological comfort zone.
Problem is, he may have alienated himself from his main base in doing so. Here’s another passage from the Toynbee article:
“David Miliband is called a Blairite – but he has no truck with the Hutton/Milburn strand of contrariness that backs business against Labour policies every time. He would step in and regulate the risk-taking City. He chooses equality over the old Blair “choice” agenda. His espousal of personal carbon trading is the most radical policy any Labour minister ever proposed in a decade, cutting energy use while redistributing wealth – but it was blocked by Brown at the Treasury.”For her, that’s as strong an endorsement as it gets. For others – the Blairites – it could be reason enough to turn away from Miliband and look elsewhere.
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