David miliband

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Which Miliband’s star is ascending?

For the Kremlinologists among us, Andrew Grice has an insightful article in today’s Independent on the growing support for Ed Miliband in the Labour Party.  He kicks it off by asking the pivotal question when it comes to the Brothers Miliband – “Will Ed Miliband eclipse brother David?” – and follows that up with some affirmative evidence: “…the word in Labour circles is that Ed is no longer trailing in his brother’s wake. Indeed, some senior figures believe he has already overtaken him in the game that increasingly occupies Labour minds as the party appears to head for a general election defeat – its future leadership stakes… …friends are quietly

Tuesday

Martin Bright

Labour Leadership Speculation is Back with a Vengeance

Rachel Sylvester’s column today provides more than the usual share of insight and high-level gossip — what more do you want from a political columnist? The following paragraph is devastating about the Prime Minister’s handling of the Megrahi affair: “Even members of the Cabinet who remain publicly loyal are privately scathing about Mr Brown’s performance in recent days. “We can’t go on like this,” says one minister. “It’s beyond difficult — it’s farcical. We’re going from one fiasco to another and Government by fiasco doesn’t work. I’ve never been a plotter but I feel total exasperation.” Rachel is right to say that this is the Labour Party’s Groundhog Day.  As

Monday

James Forsyth

The government contradicts itself on Megrahi

David Miliband on the Today Programme on September 2nd: “We did not want him [Megrahi] to die in prison.” Ed Balls on the Today Programme on September 7th: “None of us wanted to see the release of al-Megrahi” Considering that Megrahi was sentenced to life imprison for his role in the Lockerbie bombing, I cannot see how both of these statements of the government’s view can be correct. If the government did not want him to die in prison, it wanted him to be released.

Wednesday

Martin Bright

10 Days Away and Libya Still on the Front Pages

It’s not often that you take a holiday to return to the same story running nearly two weeks later. Just before I went away, I updated my Facebook page to say that I thought the release of Megrahi would rebound on the UK government, but I had no idea it would develop into a full-blown crisis. Bill Rammell was filmed in very unfortunate circumstances making his confession last night. But well may he sweat — perhaps he agreed to be shot like that in sympathy for the dissidents held in Gaddafi’s desert jails. But the game is up now. Rammell, Miliband, Straw and Brown all decided that they didn’t want

David Blackburn

The Lockerbie papers

Bill Rammell’s admission that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary told the Libyans that they ‘did not want al-Megrahi to pass away in prison’ is the bombshell the government hoped to avoid. And, together with Jack Straw’s sudden decision not to exclude al-Magrahi from the PTA to protect ‘wider negotiations with the Libyans”, this disclosure requires answers from the government. David Miliband heightened the chaos the government now finds itself in on the Today programme when he very foolishly remarked: “We did not want him to die in prison”. It was a slip of the tongue that undoes the government’s wilfully neutral stance over the al-Megrahi affair, stoking the rumour

Sunday

David Blackburn

Negotiating with the Taliban is fantasy

Lots of photo opportunities for the Prime Minister in Afghanistan, looking almost louche in shirt-sleeves and tie, but he’s attempted to provide some much needed direction for the Afghan mission. Last month, David Miliband said that Nato must talk to the Taliban and the Guardian reports that Brown is considering reconciliation also. Here are the details: ‘A source close to Brown suggested negotiations with insurgents sympathetic to the Taliban, persuading them to switch sides, now formed a key component of Britain’s war effort. He added: “The more reconciliation, the better.” Diplomatic sources in Helmand suggested such efforts could be on a large scale: “A large part of the Taliban are

Monday

Martin Bright

The Torture Debate

There isn’t one. That was a trick headline. The line between a state that tortures and the state that does everything in its power to avoid the physical abuse of individuals in its name is what defined the late twentieth century drive against barbarism. When the French were exposed using specially adapted field radios to pass electric shocks through suspected rebels in Algeria it rightly caused outrage in a world still recovering from the reality of the Holocaust.  We are a little less easy to horrify now. But the revelation that our own intelligence services have been prepared to use the fruits of torture, however unwittingly, still has the ability to digust. The response this

David Blackburn

To restore confidence, there must be an inquiry into alleged British involvement in torture. 

Following Alan Johnson’s and David Miliband’s denial of British collusion in torture, Sir John Scarlett, the head of MI6, has inadvertently added a further denial. In a Radio 4 interview, recorded prior to the publication of Johnson’s and Miliband’s joint article, and which will be broadcast this morning, Sir John asserted that there has been “no torture and there is no complicity with torture.” Asked if Britain was ever compromised by its allies’, and particularly the Americans’, “different moral standards”, Scarlett replied: “Our American allies know that we are our own service, that we are here to work for the British interests and the United Kingdom. We’re an independent service

Monday

James Forsyth

Lacking in boldness

David Miliband is right that political parties need to adapt if they are to survive. Membership of all the main parties are down and the number of activists they can call on in shrinking. His John Smith memorial lecture contains some worthwhile ideas on how to open up the Labour party. But, as so often, Miliband has not taken the opportunity to be truly bold. In the speech, Miliband speaks approvingly of open primaries. So, why not use an open primary for the post-election leadership contest? It would be a way of saying that post-defeat, Labour would look out not in. It would also guarantee that the contest attracts national

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Another one for Miliband’s collection of cock-ups

Great spot by Paul Waugh, who’s got evidence of the latest Miliband cock-up over at his blog.  Basically, Miliband told the Commons earlier this week that British aid to India would be decreased and eventually stopped because “India is becoming a richer country”.  But now he’s had to sneak out a complete retraction, which even makes reference to India’s “continuing levels of poverty”: “We have no plans to scale down the provision of aid to India, nor to stop the provision of aid by 2011.  Our aid expenditure under current spending plans amounts to £285m in 2008/09, £275m in 2009/10, and £280m in 2010/11. These figures reflect India’s continuing levels

Wednesday

Martin Bright

Why the Reshuffle is Not the Solution

As I wandered through parliament on Monday evening I bumped into a former minister who had just come out of the do-or-die parliamentary Labour Party meeting. He reached in his pocket and showed me a text message on his mobile from a constituency activist: “So it’s a slow, lingering death then,” it said. This was the week the Labour Party finally, definitively admitted defeat. The European elections demonstrated that Labour can’t win under Gordon Brown’s leadership. James Purnell’s courage in being the first Cabinet minister to voice what his colleagues know to be the case was met with shuffling feet and bowed heads. The expressions of loyalty from those who

Friday

Martin Bright

The Generation Game

The rhododendron flowers are out, so it must be time for the  big beasts of the Labour Party to stir again. Charles Clarke has said that he’s ashamed to be a Labour MP after the events of the past few weeks. Well, who wouldn’t be? Clarke says there are no signs of a leadership challenge, but I’m not so sure. I think Frank Field is right that if the European and local elections on 4 June are as bad as expected, we might see a summer of serious speculation about Brown’s position. We are back preceisely where we were last summer. David Blunkett has entered the fray again. I thought he was