The Other Miliband

Speaker: David Miliband MP

Chair: Tony Wright

This event was recorded on 8 March 2011 in Old Theatre, Old Building

For the first time since First World War, governments in Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and Italy come from the centre-right. Is this just an accidental quirk of fate or is it more serious? 

David Miliband has worked at the top of UK government and politics for over 15 years. He was the youngest Foreign Secretary in thirty years from 2007 to 2010. As Secretary of State for the Environment he pioneered the world's first legally binding emissions reduction Bill. As Minister for Schools he was recognised as a leader of reform. He led the policy renewal of Britain's Labour Party under Tony Blair from 1994 to 2001. He is currently Member of Parliament for South Shields and is married to violinist Louise Shackelton.

Since its foundation in 1930, The Political Quarterly has explored and debated the key issues of the day. It is dedicated to political and social reform and has long acted as a conduit between policy-makers, commentators and academics. The Political Quarterly addresses current issues through serious and thought-provoking articles, written in clear jargon-free English.

 Now, he could have won - fortunately, he had a gormless, unelectable goon of a little brother and there was a postal vote that The Right could
interfere with.

David Milłiband did have a political vision (even if it was a stupid vision), he wasn't a robot and he could  string a sentence together.

And he could have been Prime Minister.

So he had to be sent away to America.

I quote The Enemy : 

"Union recommendation controversy

Under Labour Party rules, trade unions were allowed to make recommendations to their members, but were barred from doing this in the same envelope that contained the ballot paper. During the election, it emerged that both the GMB and Unite had included both an envelope containing the ballot paper, and an envelope containing promotional material for Ed Miliband, their favoured candidate, in the same communication. Though the promotional material was in a separate envelope to the ballot paper, this nevertheless attracted criticism that they had breached the spirit of the rules."