While I’m amused by Harriet Harman’s apparent interest in the top job, I’m amazed by David Miliband’s. I thought he was smart. It seems to me he can’t help but emerge a loser from the present situation.
If he doesn’t make an outright challenge for the leadership now, he will look like he has bottled it, twice, and will begin to look like the Michael Portillo of the Labour Party. If he does challenge Brown and lose, he will look like a loser. If he wins, he will most probably lose the election against Cameron, and will look like a loser. And, least likely scenario of all, if he wins the election against Cameron, he will still have to rule the country with a screwed up economy and a disgruntled electorate grown tired of Labour.
He should have let Brown lose, let the Tories win, let the Tories wallow in recession, let Labour re-group and himself assert his authority over the party in opposition, before coming back to beat the PR toff PM, who will very likely underperform when in power.
Instead, he’s let his lust for power and his vanity put him into a no-win situation. What was he thinking? Are politicians so irredeemably short-term that they can’t think more than a year ahead? Anyone more au fait with Westminster gossip, let me know!
