The Staggers: David Miliband

Deep within a filling cabinet I keep a copy of the 1998 Marxism Today special that just said "Wrong" on a cover adorned by Tony Blair. I thought of it while reading David Miliband in last week's New Statesman. In it David proclaimed that Labour should say "loud and clear where wemade mistakes, but we should also insist that ... read more

David Miliband's stimulating response to the Hattersley/Hickson article "In praise of Social Democracy" (in the Political Quarterly) contains some assumptions and prescriptions which merit a response. While Miliband is right to stress the need for rethinking, it is questionable whether he has identified the right mix between principle and practice that will enable Labour to regain the hearts and minds of either party supporters or the wider electorate.

Like many ... read more

It was little reported but Ed Miliband welcomed David Miliband's elegant, cogently argued and stimulating essay last week on Labour's direction.

We all believe it is right that the Labour Party as a whole talks about how we deliver fairness in tough times. Even if the Westminster bubble wrongly sees this as division we should encourage a genuine debate be heard through the din.

So let's try. ... read more

David Miliband's New Statesman essay dominated conversation at Westminster last week and this morning we've heard from the man himself. The occasion for Miliband's media offensive is the launch of a new youth unemployment report but it's his comments on Ed and the shadow cabinet that have attracted everyone's attention.

Asked by the Today programme if he would return to ... read more

Among the highlights in this week's New Statesman (out tomorrow) is David Miliband's most significant political intervention since the Labour leadership contest. In an exclusive essay written in response to a recent piece by Roy Hattersley ("In praise of social democracy"), a strong and vocal supporter of his brother, Miliband denounces a faction that he calls"Reassurance Labour".

Of the brand of social democracy espoused by Hattersley and others, he writes:

For some, ... read more

David Miliband made a brilliant speech in the House of Commons yesterday in which he deconstructed four of George Osborne's key economic arguments, namely

1. That the Canadian example shows that a "contractionary expansion" is possible.

2. That private sector growth was previously crowded out by the public sector.

3. That the UK's record low bond yields are due to Osborne's deficit reduction programme.

4. That without austerity we ... read more

As the Guardian's Andrew Sparrow notes, David Miliband has given an interview to local paper The Journal in which he again rules out an early return to the shadow cabinet. Asked if he would take a job on the frontbench, he said:

I say the same thing always to everyone, which is that I think I made the right decision last ... read more

Another day, another twist in the saga of the Miliband brothers. Today's Independent reports that David Miliband is contemplating a surprise return to the Labour frontbench. A friend of the elder Miliband tells Andrew Grice: "There is a debate going on. Some people are arguing that it would be better to be a team player than look as though he is sulking on the sidelines".

Regardless ... read more

David Miliband has posted the following statement on his website:

I have moved on from the leadership election and so should everyone else. Ed won, I stand fully behind him and so should everyone else. I called for unity last October and I repeat that now. We all have our part to play in supporting Ed and the front bench team to ensure we expose this ... read more

The Guardian has got its hands on a draft of the speech David Miliband would have given at the 2010 Labour conference had he, and not his younger brother Ed, won the party leadership in September. Patrick Wintour and Allegra Stratton's report carries the following standfirst: "Draft of speech shows divisions with Ed Miliband on deficit reduction and support for Office of Budgetary Responsibility." But ... read more

Can the left, or more specifically Labour, learn from its history? In an important article in the Times (£), David Miliband sets out his stall as a leading thinker on the crisis of the contemporary left in Europe. More precisely, he discusses the failure of the European parties of the governing left to seize the moment.

He claims that the parties of the European left ... read more

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David Miliband's political comeback continues. After interventions on the NHS and on multiculturalism, as well as a weekend appearance on The Andrew Marr Show, the former foreign secretary turns his attention to the crisis of European social democracy in an article for the Times (£), a ... read more