When I wrote in the New Statesman in 2008 that Ed Miliband would "come to be regarded as Brown's natural successor", I didn't envisage such a heavyweight endorsement as the one that has come today.

The younger Miliband has received a big boost with these words from the much-loved former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, writing in the Observer:

Ed [Miliband], I think, is very bright, including politically bright. He is hugely energetic. He is fluent. He has got the capacity to inspire people, which we need. And that marks him out as a special kind of young potential leader.

I am certain that he is a modern democratic socialist because he has got strong values and he is very practical. His attitude is that it is no good wandering around with convictions unless you want to put them into practice, and that really is his motivation. And vitally, absolutely vitally, he is comfortable among people of every kind, young and old, men and women, inside and outside the movement.

We really do need a leader who can reach out for the rebuilding of the Labour Party, but particularly to give coherence to our thinking.