Britain’s foreign minister David Miliband says he does not want a leadership fight.
But his speech to the Labour party conference in Manchester on Monday was hardly rammed full of ringing endorsements for his Prime Minister either and it won’t end the whispering.
On the surface, it was supportive and brimming with the collective nouns of unity. He made an honest crack at convincing the party they can beat the Conservatives in the next election, due by May 2010, regardless of what the polls say.
And there were some drippings of praise for Gordon Brown. Well, to be precise, two examples where Brown had made a difference as Britain’s leader on the global stage — breaking a diplomatic deadlock on cluster bombs and his efforts in the fight against poverty.
But the cynics out there could be forgiven for reading that as the embryonic rustlings of a political obituary.
“You,” Miliband said to Brown as he addressed an attentive full house, “have transformed the political debate about international development in this country in the last 11 years and we should take inspiration from that as we move forward.”
Now, was that “we” the royal “we” of the heir to the throne?
As delegates rose to their feet and clapped long enough to show they like Miliband but not so long as to upset Gordon, the two men joked and shook hands.
But not everyone was convinced.
“I don’t think he’s (Brown) going to make it. But the conference is a bit frightened of giving Miliband too much of an ovation,” said Carolyn Loveday, a Party member from Morecambe. “We’re a bit like lemmings.”
Do you think Labour needs a new leader?
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6 comments so far
Labour does not need a new leader.
But the UK needs a new government.
- Posted by JasonMiliband,the smiling assassin,cannot be trusted.
- Posted by HarryA nice touch from Miliband, to point out that Brown’s major achievement over the past 11 years has been to throw increasing amounts of British taxpayers’ money at “international development”.
Voters are entitled to think that he should have spent more of his time developing the UK instead of doing his best to destroy it.
- Posted by AndyHave the labour party not realized yet that if Brown goes, then they all go??…..the country will not stand for another non elected Prime Minister.
Once again demonstrating that they just don’t get it…..
- Posted by IanThe government has run out of steam anyway, a change of leader would make little difference to a party that has exhausted the talent it once had available to it.
- Posted by ChrisWhat Brown did at the party conference was read out a list of cliches, most of which he has churned out before. Labour still stinks of the Blair principle which was to get to and stay at the top of politics for reasons of personal vanity and without any intention whatsoever of governing in the interests of the whole country. Brown as chancellor and PM has concentrated on creating a client ’state within a state’, trying to rig it so that so many people are dependent on Labour that they dare not throw them out. But, of course, any new Labour leader would try to do the same. He [or she] would borrow more money to bribe the faithful [as Brown certainly will] and create an economic mess of historic magnitude. So the answer is ‘no’; who needs another Labour solipsistic sociopath when we’ve already got a perfect example. The depressing fact is that the Tories clearly lack the guts to turn the ship of state around before it hits the rocks. They made themselves ‘electable’ by becoming what Blair was… a trimmer who would say any darned touchy-feely nonsense which he thought would get him elected. Will the last Brit to leave the country please turn out the lights because we must minimise the CO2 emissions, mustn’t we nanny. Sigh.
- Posted by John Lamble