to think that David Miliband would have walked this?

[ApplePaltrow]

I just can't help but think that if Ed Miliband had not been selfish and instead had thought of the country, this night would be going very differently.

Labour are blaming the tories, blaming UKIP, blaming everyone else. Isn't the reality that they shat away an incredible opportunity to define a political generation over stupid opportunistic selfishness? They thought that the tories would be so toxic that anyone could beat them. Such hubris! When you take electorate for granted, you get UKIP and the SNP.

It's not even like Ed Miliband was particularly left-wing in the end. Was it worth it???

I feel like this should be a wakeup call but instead the guardian etc are somehow painting this as a cameron loss. Unbelievable.

He MUST go. Bring back David.

I have to say I agree with the OP, I have always felt that Ed was a big mistake compared to David. David had charisma and although Ed might be a clever guy etc it just doesn't come across. Seriously, what were they thinking?!

YANBU OP. The thought of Ed as the new PM was what really held me back from voting for Labour - that and the infamous note and the Moses tablet. He lacks real, strong leadership which the country is crying out for. As a previous poster said, people are scared, and for all the faults of the Tories, Cameron is a good leader. Had Labour had someone leading them with the charisma and oratory skills of someone like Blair, someone more able to effectively convey their policies with the passion which Ed lacks, they would have and should have romped this election.

Yes Quills, I couldn't be a stronger labour supporter and even I had qualms about Ed running the country.

Stupid, opportunistic selfishness? Isn't that the Oxford Dictionary definition of politics?

I thought David was more Blair v2?

I have always seen on here that you cannot count the previous Labour government because Tony wasn't "true" labour?

Now its gone down the pan, you want Labour to be more centrist chasing the tory vote.....

Says it all really.

I think, with hindsight, the reason the conservatives have been re-elected is because the Lib Dems held back their worst excesses so they couldn't go as far (and as damaging) as they would have liked.

I said a few days ago that the conservatives had not mucked up as much as usual, so it made it a tighter race. I didn't take into account the part the lib dems played in that.

Labout wouldn't have got in with David Milliband either. They just wouldn't. It is because of the coalition we have this situation, and because of the Scottish referendum. Nothing to do with Ed.

infinitely more charismatic and believable

Not words I'd used to describe David Cameron, but he managed it.

You can predict, to some extent, who people vote for based on facial appearance alone. There's decent scientific evidence showing this.

Sure, it's not brilliant that we do this, but we do. But you'd think political parties would take a bit more note before electing Ed over David.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-look-of-a-winner/

www.pnas.org/content/104/46/17948.short

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00511.x/full

journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7909925&fileId=S0043887110000195

The Conservatives were delighted when Ed won. That should have told Labour something.

I just can't help but think that if Ed Miliband had not been selfish and instead had thought of the country, this night would be going very differently.

I don't think that's fair. I think he genuinely believes in a different sort of Labour, and felt David would take Labour, and therefore the country in the wrong direction.

Yes it's because David was a bit 'Blair mk 2' that he could have gained more votes - safe, politically savvy, not a scary lefty.

Just as I always rather admired Mandelson because, in the end, do you want to be (believe that you are) right, or do you want be in power?

Agree that the SNP vote would have happened anyway, leaving coalition with them the only option, after the poor old lib dems had annihilated themselves.

I do feel sorry for the lib dems. And terrified for what an unrestrained Tory administration will do without them. How any lib dem supporter could vote Tory is beyond me.

And we all know it wasn't the Labour members but the unions that elected Ed. But it was the Labour Party that retained that electoral system. It was the Labour Party that thereby chose Ed. Infighting after the event impresses no-one.

I would say that if when Ed goes, there are a gaggle of very impressive MP's lining up for that job- Chuka Umunna, Yvette Cooper, even Tristram Hunt who could go for Labour leader. I am naturally LD and can't see anyone who could bring that party together.

Lottie I agree. re lib dems. The only policies that vaguely helped the poor in the coalition- raising the tax threshold, shared parental leave, free school meals were lib dem. If you were unhappy with them, why vote Tory?? They will be unfettered now.

David can't just be 'brought back' so this isn't very constructive, is it?

yanbu

ed was never the man for the job

it's not a popularity contest but a leader needs to have the ability to give people hope and belief in the change that can come.

No, he would have alienated the 'ordinary working voter' even more.

YANBU. I've spent time with both brothers, and Blair. David has what Blair has - a charisma and conviction that makes people want to go along with him, even if they regret it almost immediately. Ed is a decent and sincere bloke but he doesn't have it, and it was painfully obvious from the outset. I wish he hadn't stood for the leadership.

David can come back to Westminster fairly easily during the parliament if they want him too but I think his time may have passed. I'm not sure how many other current possibles can inspire new voters though. The lack of a decent team around him was Ed's other problem; the Labour front bench made so little impact against unpopular Government policies. They missed open goal after open goal and failed to fight the rhetoric on the economy. So another one of them in charge isn't a particularly encouraging prospect for Labour.

God, if someone chased out of the country is the person to led the Labour party, God help us.

Tristram Hunt is looking at private schools for his kids. More acceptable in my parents generation when Wilson and Callaghan did just that. The Labour voters just wouldnt let him get away with it now. Chuka looks good but there is something about him, a sort of smugness. Yvette always comes across well but she is married to ED BALLS!

Tories have seen off three leaders, Farage, Miliband and Clegg. Blimey....

MY goodness, nearly 100 seats ahead of Labour.... Those previous polls were nonsense werent they....I wonder how much they cost?

The constant harping on about David did damage to Ed and the party both in public and, presumably, within the party.

I really do not think he would have 'walked it', he would have needed to set out a very clear vision of (1) where he was taking the party and (2) where he wanted to take the country. And I struggle to see who he was going to be appealing to. He is very, very middle class - and the conservatives have that sewn up.

Lots of complaints about Ed being an intellectual and not a good communicator but the same could be said of David. He's assumed mythical proportions in people's heads.

I've met them both and found them to be equally outgoing but Ed to be more sincere.

The ludicrousness of Ed Milliband as PM shouldn't be underestimated, he came across as weak, and also at times a bit silly. I listened to him speak a lot without hearing him actually saying anything. Gimmicks like the Russell Brand interview and the giant Tombstone (what are they going to do with that now?) just seemed the desperate acts of a man out of his depth. I imagine a lot of people voted for Cameron to remain as Prime Minister in the absence of any other realistic alternative.

Milliband looked on the ropes at that Question Time debate, and that was in front of ordinary punters, not Putin, not on PMQs.

Most voters want broadly the same things for the country and economy but disagree on how best to achieve this. Honestly this time round, there wasn't much choice. To my mind Labour were not clear enough about what they had to offer on specific issues and didn't do enough to allay the fears people still had after their recent 13 years in power.

Ed M has resigned, wef today. Harriet Harman to be caretaker leader.

I think it was Plunket earlier today who said that labour lost this election in the first six months after the 2005 election when they were too busy in-fighting to start countering the Tory/LibDem narrative of Labour over-spending.

Labour did NOT overspend but hardly anyone outside the economists believe that.

Labour did not single-handedly cause the worldwide economic crisis. In fact most countries copied Brown's measures to mitigate against the meltdown.

The note was a joke, or a sort that the outgoing administration leaves for the incomers. the reason most people don't know about the tradition, is that it isn't anything meant to be public. It is supposed to be a private thing between the politicians concerned. The fact that the Coalition went public said something about their ruthlessness.

And Labour let them get away with re-writing the history. That was were they failed.