Far from being a Bennite, Ed Miliband has the backing of notable moderates like Luke Akehurst (http://lukeakehurst.blogspot.com/) and John Gray (http://grayee.blogspot.com). Far from being a Blairite, David Miliband’s radicalism includes support for a British Investment Bank (a Labour policy during the late 80s / early 90s), living wage campaigns, and reform to company law to give ordinary workers representation on remuneration committees. His recent speech on job creation and industrial policy could just as easily have been made by Ed (http://www.davidmiliband.net/2010/07/24/reducing-the-jobs-deficit/)

So, I have been cautioning against people using the spatial metaphors of left, right, and centre – and urging instead that we talk about the interests that are at stake. For people on modest to middle incomes there is a common interest in defending public services – we should therefore have no truck with talk of left/right etc., because it avoids the issues that lost our party votes. That Ed rather than David has the backing of trade union executives owes more to the younger brother not being so closely associated with the New Labour project than substantive policy difference from his brother.

The view that was held of the Labour Party by people it needed to win in the early nineties no longer exists. Times have changed – where once people might have entertained the idea that industrial militancy caused economic woes, since the financial crisis more people see the greed and recklessness of those at the top as a problem.

My hopes for this leadership contest were that it would advance the party’s approach beyond acceptance of the existing power relations towards greater democratic control by ordinary people (http://hands-of-the-many.blogspot.com/2010/05/on-future-of-labour.html).

Perhaps – and here’s a bone to Paul Cotterill – the best thing for the development of Ed Miliband’s political sensibilities, as an individual, would be for him to lose the leadership contest. Maybe then he’ll appreciate the need for and role of a mass movement, if that’s what Labour is to return to, as so many soundbytes from the candidates seem to hint.

My iffy attitude to Miliband Jr is coined precisely by Jako, above. He is attracting people from Left and Right – not by convincing either of his capacity for a new departure but by appealing to some policies acceptable to the one and some policies acceptable to the other. And this is before he’s cocooned inside the Westminster comfort zone as Leader of HM Opposition.