Michael Meacher MP

The Ed Miliband leadership bid announced today is a welcome alternative to his brother’s attempt to drag us back into the Blairite cul-de-sac.   If there is one certain message from the election, it’s that New Labour is now not only dead but buried, and for an unabashed Blairite like David Miliband to propose to draft the course of Labour’s renewal when Blairism is the cause of its demise is absurd.   Ed however has to prove himself.   Ed earned himself points at his tenure at Environment through his opposition to the third runway, his handling of the Copenhagen climate change summit, and his introduction of the rather arcane but very important feed-in tariffs (though rather less so for his advocacy of a nuclear power revival).   But he has so far showed no indication of his stance on the major issues of political and economic contention.

He now has to do so, and not with the camouflage of progressive waffle with which his brother launched his bid.   There are several searching questions to be answered: (more…)