AIBU in asking if you have DCs close in age do you agree Ed Milliband is a backstabber for competing with his brother?

[howabout]

I have 2 teenage DDs close in age with quite similar talents but dissimilar personalities and outlooks. I would never expect one to stand aside for the other and although they support each other they are both strong bpartly because they always have a sibling to stand up to. If I were Ed and David's Mum I would be very proud to produce 2 DCs capable of running to be PM and I would fully expect them to compete.

No.

David is a slimy Blairite with a dodgy bumfluff tash and a clear after the fact tendency to spit his dummy out. Fair dos to Ed for standing against him.

For goodness sake Ed never backstabed David. Their was a party/union vote and Ed won a majourity of the post.

They're both in politics. The fact that they are brothers is a total irrelevance.

Nope. When you have siblings that have similar talents or have a similar career. One of them will always be just that bit better in some way and the other will be better in another.

Look at the sporting Siblings. Serena and Venus have had to compete against each other several times.

I completely agree Jacobsmum but I am shocked at how much I am hearing this line from female political commentators eg Kay Burley

Oh dear.

Yeah - I think their mum should have been asked to step in and call off the vote of all the Labour Party members etc. It should have been up to her to decide. And she would've been right.

Or she could have told them to take turns properly.

You are easily shocked OP.

So you don't expect them to stand a sides for the other yet at the same time ed is a back stabbed for winning?

Just because they are brothers they have just as much right to fight for job as anyone else, if we are suggesting that the younger brother should have given uo for the sake of the other then that's crazy!

I think under the circumstances they did very well, and if labour do get in I wouldn't be suprised if at se point he was asked to serve in the cabinet

Huh?

Siblings are perfectly ok to chase the same job

I'd love to know the current state of their relationship. I'd love to know what Mrs M thinks about it all too.

Mrs M planning the next family get together.

The comments about backstabbing irritate me intensely. As a younger sibling, I'd be furious if anyone suggested that I should give up my own ambitions so as to give my older sister a better chance.

Ed and David both wanted to lead the Labour Party. Presumably, they both believed that they were the best candidates for the job. They both stood, there were no dirty tricks, and Ed was elected according to the rules at the time. Where is the backstabbing in that?

Kay Burley is a national embarrassment.

two brothers went after the same job.

Fair enough.

Squoosh, yup. That's all I can think about. Their poor, poor mother.

No one who comes out with this guff can ever explain what Ed did wrong. They just state it as a fact that Ed is a backstabber.

Well Ed and David had very different ideas about the future of their party. They each had an equal right to stand for election - primogeniture having no part to play in Labour leadership elections.

Can anyone offer a contrary argument, one that would pass muster outside a primary school playground.

The differences are clear, and always have been. Dave was a Blairite, and Ed was a union man.

I must admit that when I first heard about Ed going for office, I was and the first person I thought about was their mother! Poor mum. I feel for her.

I never understood this notion that Ed was somehow out of line for wanting to work in the same industry as his brother, with both having the ambition to get the top job.

Anyone who suggests that younger siblings should step aside and let the elder sibling have an easier path is, frankly, not right in the heid.

Ps YABU to even mention that daft Burley bint's name. If only she'd had an elder sister who wanted to be a news reader...

Ah, how I love the scent of astroturfing in the morning!

Go and pick a fight with a mirror OP.

If "political commentator" Kay Burley had a talented younger sister who stood against her for her job applications, there would be much less shite about.

I think if it was any other type of job and you were close siblings you might be able to have a discussion and come to an agreement about who would go for it this time. But the party leadership is about the direction the party is heading and their political viewpoints weren't close enough for it to just be about who was individually better for the job. And the whole, 'you have a turn then I will' agreement didn't go so well for Blair and Brown.

I don't think it was backstabbing-it isn't some inherited role, like king for example, where the firstborn has precedence.
It must be uncomfortable for the family but they both had the same right to go for the job.

YABU.

Not at all. Ed was elected, he didn't sneak in through the back door.

I forgot it is always the fault of Mum.

I didn't see anyone blame their Mum-more sympathise that she's in an awkward situation.