to think Ed Miliband should apologise to his brother

[Sallyingforth]

and invite him back to stand for leader.

Charis, why do you think the Milibands were the only candidates in the 2010 leadership election? In fact there were five - the other three were Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott.

Oh ffs leave poor Ed alone.

Imo he is a decent and honourable man who would have made a great PM.

Who gives a fuck that he competed with his brother for Labour party leadership or how he eats a bacon sandwich.

The country has now been condemned to another five years of the odious Dave, Gideon and Bo-Jo. Hooray Henry's the lot of them with nary a care for the oppressed, disabled and hard working poor.

God help us.

I doubt David Miliband would come back now. He has a successful career. I just wanted to say that my personal experience of David Miliband, through work, was very positive. He has great drive and vision and I really do think he would have done very well as leader of the Labour Party. Also, he was always seen as being one of Gordon Brown's men rather than Tony Blair's wasn't he? But then I don't really understand the hatred of Tony Blair. I think that history will view him very differently - people don't seem to remember Sierra Leone.

He has done nothing to apologise to his brother for. YABU

Flummoxed as to why people saw him as a liability. It seems more that he couldn't win. In Scotland and Wales he was being called a "red Tory" and in parts of England he was too left wing for their taste.
The losers will be anyone with any form of disability or disadvantage.
Normally try to avoid personal insults but why do people think he looks more odd than shiny, slimy Dave.

David wouldn't have done a better job because our gutter press wouldn't have allowed him to. Do you honestly think the DM etc would have had anything positive to say about him? I think the vilification and mockery of Ed reached a new low in the already low standards of most of our press.

I believe David was more to the right of the party and
Ed more to the left.

So they had different views and a different strategy about how the party should be taken forward.

The Labour Party then made a decision about which direction they wanted to go in and chose their leader accordingly.

I think they probably went in the wrong direction.

I don't think Ed was really 'sellable' sadly. David perhaps moreso, but who knows.

I don't get the attitude that Ed shouldn't have put himself forward though. Why? Because he's the younger brother?

Rather puts me in mind of the view that a younger sister oughtn't to marry until the older finds a husband...

(Incidentally I am not a Labour support and don't particularly like either Miliband).

David might well have gained the approval of the gutter press by not condemning Murdoch and wanting press reform. Which might have swung the election, but wouldn't have made him the better man.

more cheese Gromit

Ok so I accept that the Miliband brothers were brought up seeped in left wing politics and therefore might both go for theleadship. However if David was so happy with Ed winning that race why did he leave politics? Why not stay and support his brother and help the labour party as much as he could?
Not only did he leave politics he left the country surely there was some job he could have done in the Uk?
We are never really going to know but they seem like the actions of an unhappy man.

David was arrogant and assumed he was a shoo in
Ed put in the work and got the support

in the election
Labour assumed they were a shoo in for their Scottish seats
the SNP put in the work

Lib Dems thought the South West would hold strong
the Tories put in the work

same result

Oh FFS. At least get the facts right if you're going to try and start making something out of this.

Five people stood in that leadership contest, as someone upthread pointed out. I should know, I was a member of the party at the time. Didn't vote for either Miliband brother as my first choice, though.

But if we're going to start talking talented brothers, how about the Nevilles, Brownlees, Murrays. Seems to make sense that two people with the same genes and same upbringing would grow up to be good at the same thing.

We are never really going to know but they seem like the actions of an unhappy man.

Well, that's his problem.

But I'd guess that whatever he did, there would always be people talking about the contest between the two. Walking away and staying out of the limelight may have been the best for both brothers.

One good result of this week's events is that HOPEFULLY WE CAN STOP HAVING THIS IDIOTIC DISCUSSION.

Ahem. I feel better now.

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

More chance than the people best suited to the top jobs having been to Eton!

Oh yes Jassy. David Miliband isn't sitting on a park bench with a bottle of White Lightning grizzling about what could've been. He gracefully cleared the stage and went off to live a successful life. He's hardly broken and it was done according to due process.