Ed Milliband

I saw a film yesterday called "Killing Them Softly", a film about petty criminals and contract killers. As a sort of running background to the main action you were made aware of, on TVs in bars in which the killers sat to talk, pictures of Barack Obama and various other politicians of the period just before he became president, spouting stuff about how they were going to change America etc. (One of the themes of the film had to do with America being the same old place it always was, corrupt and occupied with big business - just like the underworld where the main protagonists of the film were located.) One of the themes of Obama's speech had to with "one nation". I thought to myself: "haven't I heard this theme before recently?" Of course, it was at the core of Ed Milliband's speech at the Labour Party conference. Just had Disraeli's speech of the late 1800's been a call for the country to become "one nation", so too was Ed Milliband's.
I thought: "some chance, mate". One nation with the Queen and company living in Buckingham Palace? One nation with bankers and their ilk trousering vast sums of cash to spend on skying trips and yachts? One nation with Eton and Oxford versus your local greasy-spoon comp?
But let them dream, these politicians. They've always have been hopeless dreamers. Clegg had a dream a few weeks ago at the Lib Dem do and no doubt, Cameron will have a dream next week.
But Milliband's speech, while idealistic and well delivered, didn't do much for me as it seemed to have done for the vast majority of the Press ("once we had the rack, now we have The Press" said Oscar Wilde). I'll tell you why. Because I can't get it out of my craw that Ed Milliband stood for leader of the Labour Party against his elder brother. Not because they had quarreled about some aspect of socialist policies that made them in fundamental disagreement but because he desired the position. Against his own brother! We are back with Esau and Jacob here. Or Abel and Cain maybe. Too strong perhaps but nonetheless I didn't like it and still don't like it.