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Miliband plays, Brown has the blues
"To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose? And plant this thorn, this canker Bolingbroke?”
Henry IV Part I
Our latter-day Hotspur, Thoroughly Modern Miliband, (actually an Arsenal fan) is in rebellion at the ailing and cankerous premier Gordon Brown. Sadly though, his rallying cry on a Comment is Free prompted only a torrent of rage from commenters. One fumed:
“I'm sorry, "the project" has failed, and as it's run its course it destroyed a once-noble party and completely betrayed all the masses who wanted something other than rehashed Thatcherism.”
Britain’s web-hacks pounced on the article, like starving dingoes on a missing backpacker. It was little short of declaration that he intends to challenge Brown according to James Forsyth, who noted that: “…the article takes several not-so-subtle shots at the Prime Minister”. But Telegraph.co.uk’s Matt Hackett wasn’t convinced it was a war cry, and generously speculated: “more likely however is that it simply betrays an appalling lack of good judgment”. Open House reminded us to spare a thought for brother Ed.
Lenin’s Tomb poured scorn on the idea that his personal manifesto represented a break with the past, writing:
“Even the language must remain the same, the better to reinforce a stifling orthodoxy - "the many, not the few", "change" this, "radical" that, "modernisation" the other... Whoever wrote this drivel for Miliband has the mind of a small child, and he better give it back.”
Whatever Miliband’s intentions, the Brownites certainly weren’t happy. Even before the storm broke, Jonathan Calder was struck by a telling passage in Michael White’s take on the PM’s woes:
“If a prime minister's best hope of staying in office is putting it about that his foreign secretary is not up to the job, he really is in trouble. Words like "ferrets" and "sack" spring unbidden to mind.”
An energetic and ambitious cabinet minister once remarked that: “he who wields the knife never wears the crown”. The coming weeks may reveal whether Miliband is prepared to take the gamble.
What have we learned this Week?
Sad news, that Liberal Democrat peer Lord Russell-Johnston has died. Jonathan Fryer saw him just weeks before his death, and in a brief but handsome tribute, wrote:
“It was clear he was far from well, yet he treated us to his usual incisive analyses of the current political situation, as well as his sardonic wit. During the 30-odd years that I knew him, it was his humour that I most savoured.”
Blogging Baroness Ros Scott added that:
“One of the sad aspects of being in the Lords, where the average age is 68, is that you lose friends and colleagues on a regular basis. It's something you never quite get used to.”
A committed European, he died in Paris.
Across the Pond
The House Judiciary Committee’s judgement that Karl Rove committed an act of contempt by failing to respond to a subpoena divided American bloggers along the same partisan lines as the committee. Hanlon’s Razor was delighted, but not everyone was so pleased to see due processes take their course. Self-confessed “Fox News Junkie” Michele at Mommy Notes thought it was a waste of time:
“Ok this is completely asinine. We have almost $5 a gallon gas and food prices sky rocketing and they are holding hearings on discrimination. HELLO! No wonder congress has an approval rating of 9%.”
Videos of the Week
Readers, let us revisit a video of BBC Question Time from 7 February last year, when young Miliband told a sceptical audience:
"I predict that when I come back on this programme in six months' time or a year, people will be saying, 'Wouldn't it be great to have that Blair back because we can't stand that Gordon Brown?'"
What was that about judgement?
Quote of the Week
“You have to say that if the article was a warning to Gordon Brown, it was a particular craven and skulking one”.
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