Our good friend Jenni Russell has a column in today’s Guardian dismissing the recent rise in David Miliband’s fortunes and attacking “a kind of arrogance” in his speeches.
The Foreign Secretary is usually seen as one of the more cerebral members of cabinet, but for Russell there is “no sign that he is thinking deeply about politics”.
Not content with this, she goes on to deliver an encomium to Ed Miliband, contrasting the “passionate, funny, self-deprecating” Ed with “remote, self-satisfied” David.
I take no issue with Russell’s praise for Ed. Watching him in action on the conference fringe this year, quoting Marx on the cyclical crises of capitalism, one saw a figure unusually at ease with Labour’s history and traditions. My colleague James correctly identified him as the “up-and-coming politician of 2009” in his predictions last year.
But what’s missing from Russell’s column is a declaration of interest: Ed Miliband is the godfather of her child.
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