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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think Ed Miliband should apologise to his brother

68 replies

Sallyingforth · 08/05/2015 23:13

and invite him back to stand for leader.

OP posts:
hedgehogsdontbite · 08/05/2015 23:15

What for?

GeorgeYeatsAutomaticWriter · 08/05/2015 23:15

Confused Bizarre.

YABU.

bette06 · 08/05/2015 23:19

YABU. I'm not particularly a fan of Ed Milliband but I really don't get this criticism of a younger brother standing in the same contest as or applying for the same job as their sibling and beating them to it. And why does he need to invite him to stand for leader? I don't know the rules for electing a new leader of the Labour Party but I wouldn't have thought it's by personal invitation of the resigning leader.

MovingOnUpMovingOnOut · 08/05/2015 23:20

Eh? He was fairly elected. What does he have to apologise for?

Samcro · 08/05/2015 23:21

yabu and a dickhead

AlternativeTentacles · 08/05/2015 23:22

Labour were never going to win a box of toffees with Ed at the helm. He was their fall guy.

Now they will regroup, take some better spin advice and it might be a better result next time, but imfear we are headed for another 10 years, 5 with DC and 5 with BoJo.

God help us all. Labour desperately need someone with a personality. Half a personality would be a start.

CaptainHolt · 08/05/2015 23:23

Why? You have to get 15% support from the parliamentary party to stand for leader, not do it because your brother says you can. He isn't even an MP. And those aren't even the main reasons why it would be bonkers and weird.

JoanHickson · 08/05/2015 23:26

They are ok with each other.

It is the public who have not forgotten he stood against his DB.

Icimoi · 09/05/2015 00:13

If David Miliband were interested in the Labour party, he would have come back for the campaign and supported them. If he had been seen to be fully supporting his brother, that would have killed stone dead all the nonsense about backstabbing.

Smellyoulateralligator · 09/05/2015 00:16

David is not even an MP anymore.

BishopBrennansArse · 09/05/2015 00:17

YABU

Freestripe · 09/05/2015 00:17

I'm sure they have private conversations as well as public ones... Think about it.

thehumanjam · 09/05/2015 00:19

When you are a politician you have to put the greater good above family loyalty. Ed Miliband had valid reasons for competing against his brother even though it turns out that he was wrong with regards to the direction the party should take.

Idontseeanydragons · 09/05/2015 00:23

Ed doesn't have the authority now to invite anyone to stand as leader, let alone someone who isn't an MP. David lives in the US at the moment I think now?
By all accounts they're fine with each other and have privately sorted things out between them.

NerrSnerr · 09/05/2015 00:37

What should he apologise for? Sorry I was democratically voted?

Trills · 09/05/2015 00:47

YABU

They both competed fairly.

badtime · 09/05/2015 00:49

YABU.

He didn't steal his sweeties or something; they applied for the same job and Ed got it. He has nothing to apologise for.

senrensareta · 09/05/2015 00:51

FFS it was a fair contest and they have no problem with each other

Why do the press and idiots keep trying to make something out of this? Confused

Loopylala7 · 09/05/2015 00:56

I think Ed & Davids relationship is totally up to them. I don't think anyone else should butt in. Well unless its their Mum I suppose. Are you Mrs Miliband senior OP?

Charis1 · 09/05/2015 00:59

I do have an issue with brothers standing against each other for party leadership.

There is an electorate of 46 million.

What are the chances that the two best people, the most skilled, the most committed, for the job are two brothers?

What does it say about the equal opportunities and diversity in the party that none of the other skilled, committed people got into that contest?

There odds are millions to one that the best two candidates happened to be related to each other just by chance.

(George Bush and W spring to mind)

Loopylala7 · 09/05/2015 01:02

Same genetics. Similar drives, ambitions...

Charis1 · 09/05/2015 02:35

Loopylala, there is absolutely zero possibility that the two people best suited for the job happened to be brothers!

Original poster
Sallyingforth · 09/05/2015 09:26

OK OK it seems IABU.
It was just that things might have been different if David had been the leader.
As to him not being an MP, there are always by-elections, and when the next round of cuts starts biting there will be a strong swing against the Tories.

OP posts:
ElizabethG81 · 09/05/2015 09:43

YABVU, as are all the people who trot out the tired Tory soundbites of "stabbing his brother in the back", "oh look at him, he's so weird", "oh look at the way he's eating that sandwich". They both went for the same job and Ed got it. No Milibands were stabbed in the back.

Alisvolatpropiis · 09/05/2015 09:47

Yabu, as you have acknowledged.

David Miliband is not necessarily everything he's cracked up to be. He was way, way too cosy with Tony Blair, for starters.