Tuesday 28th April

When Ed Milliband won the Labour leadership contest I was a bit dismayed.  His brother had been the obvious choice, though I actually would have preferred Alan Johnson or Hilary but neither were standing.  Thank God it wasn’t Ed Balls – imagine the headlines.  Or Dear Diane, though I was glad she stood (far too few non white women in Parliament).  So my preferences were with David (a bit Blair-Lite but very articulate and let’s face it – good looking) or Andy Burnham (sweet puppy-dog looks but did he have a bite?).  But as the contest went on I began to like some of the arguments Ed Milliband was espousing, but never actually thought he would win.  He did win, and I think that was largely because of Iraq.  The one big mistake Labour made.  I heard a radio interview with singer songwriter Martyn Joseph with a Canadian D.J., and Martyn said that hardly anyone in the country, practically no-one in the Labour Party or even in the Cabinet really agreed with invading Iraq but Blair had won anyway.  Well, Ed was the first to come out and say it had been wrong.

Anyway, that is History. For over four years we have been bombarded with silly photo’s and fed the idea that Milliband would be awful as P.M.  This was Cameron’s secret weapon – okay they hadn’t got rid of the deficit, they hadn’t slowed down the number of immigrants, they had made the rich richer and the poor poorer, but just look at Ed Milliband, would anyone in their right minds actually vote for the guy???   Or so their reasoning went.

But slowly, interview by interview, leaders debate by (Cameron absent) debate, he has changed our minds.  He is still not as popular as Cameron, but he does appear to be a human being.  Cameron is always earnest, always glib and quite frankly we are tired of him.  I have blogged before about the American statute of limitations.  Maybe Politicians can only be popular for a few years.  Next please…