David Miliband is quitting

[IUsedToBeFab]

I think he is right tbh.

I meant I don't see it as him having a stop.

Tim Henman - arf!

if there was no media, he could probably have stayed. Otherwise it would just have been reported as David-ites and Ed-ites and the 'soap opera' would have always been the story.

I disagree, if he had stayed, and worked hard for the good of the party blah blah it would have shown people (like me) who always thought he had too much of the Tonies about him, that I was wrong, that he was a committed and principled politician. Now I just think I was right all along. Which I usually am

Lily if there was no media, there would be no politics. Such is modern life.

(was disagreeing with several posts back btw!)

Ed will never be able to do a convincing Tim Henman. David has the monopoly (and face) for that.

Can't wait to see the comedy circuit work something out for this little drama, not least because they both have interesting features and odd voices. Wish Spitting Image was still going!

Gawd, I just want to change over every time I see Ed. Yuk.

So ... let me get this straight ... David Milliband was right to quit because they'll get a bit of a grilling from the media?

"In what way has he thrown his teddy out of the pram"

That Labour Party, which he claims to support, has a long-standing problem with perceived competence in foreign affairs. He was the last Labour Foreign Secretary for a generation. I may have to hand my political anorak back if I get any wrong, but Miliband Major is sulking in the back benches, Robin Cook is dead and Jack Straw has retired, so the only person left in the PLP who has experience as foreign secretary and is not sulking is Margaret Beckett, who aside from not exactly being the "new generation" is deeply mired in Blair's Wars.

I suppose they could ask David Owen (the Labour Foreign Secretary prior to Robin Cook to come back to the Labour Party.

Gah, I want to leave the room every single time I see Ed Miliband's smug, arrogant face. Poor David, having to grow up with him and be around him.

The point about the media is that Labour desperately needs to move on from the so called 'Blair-Brown' divisions. The last thing they need is a whole new set of divisions, and with 2 brothers at the top, with different ideologies, the media would never rest from suggesting divisions. The only way for Ed to be able to move forward is for David to take a back seat.

Let's hope Ed winds up in the back seat soon. Or better still, in back of the bus as it pulls away.

I don't see smug and arrogant. Just pathetic pansy. Rabbit in the headlights. Can't believe his luck (neither can I). Disproportional sized head to body. Carefully managing emotions and words to the point of tedium because it means he says nothing at all. Hair that never moves. A strange habit of closing his eyes when he has to 'contain' himself, followed by a licking of the lips. Unable to laugh naturally. Parroting the same phrases, word perfect, over and over. Annoying stage managed pauses littering his speech.

Would imagine David Cameron is relishing PMQ's. Ed might actually cry.

I see Lady Blah's just as big a fan of Ed as I am :o.

Think his girlfriend looks like she hit every branch on the way down, too. I'm surprised she doesn't give birth to puppies.

Really don't like bitching about 'the wives', but fuck it, doesn't David's wife look like his mother?

OMG, she does! Just saw her on BBC. You are right, Lady.

I think they're fair game. I think Chantelle from BB looks like she was hit with a frying pan, too.

Lady BlahBlah my goodness I hadn't even considered Ed M at PMQs. he's going to be destroyed. he just ain't strong enough. It's remarkable how quickly that's coming true, did you hear him on the Today programme this morning?

Ed doesn't have the X factor. He's got the Z factor. As in zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. . . .

Tony Blair was not an MP in 1979. David Cameron was not an MP in 1997. The chances that the next Labour PM is a current MP are low. They're going to be in the wilderness for a long time: if you've got a diagram of the power structures in the Labour seniors, roll up that map, it will not be wanted these ten years.

If I were Cameron, I'd do something so heinous in the Spending Review that the traitors LibDems revolt against the coalition, force a confidence motion (Labour are so stupid they'd side with the LDs to vote it down) and have Ed Miliband fighting a general election, leading a bankrupt party, in late November. Return to office with a slim majority, I'd then kick back and watch the Labour Party descend into fratricidal chaos, knowing the Tories are in for twenty years.

My prediction is that Ed will prove a dud, decent but ultimately dull (like GB) and David will be the Brian Clough of the party, the greatest leader the Labour Party never had.

I think David's wife and Ed's partner look like sisters.

Totally agree with Rockbird. There is plenty of time for him to come back to the front line when all the hoo ha has died down, and I am sure he is more than capable of making an impact from the back benches.