Miliband Minor wins the Labour leadership race!

Tortoises and hares come to mind. I also got the feeling that David Milband sort of got a bit tired and testy towards the end. Four and a half months. That's half a human pregnancy. The Labour Party has some warped idea about democracy. Keep it tedious, long drawn out and folks may not get to hear too much about it all.

I can't summon up much enthusiasm for it. Personally I think Diane Abbott would be better at raising the political temperature, but she would have been a bit of a liability. Ed Miliband is no doubt a talented young man though I think he will not get many knockout blows at PMQ's. Now they will have to find a deputy leader. Another four and a half months?

The election process was tortuous indeed. Brother David kept his lead in rounds 1,2 and 3 only to get stuffed by Brother Ed in round 4. I can see why the LibDems like this sort of election.

Round 1: David Miliband 37.78%, Ed Miliband 34.33% Diane Abbott eliminated
Round 2: David Miliband 38.89%, Ed Miliband 37.47%. Andy Burnham eliminated
Round 3: David Miliband 42.72%, Ed Miliband 41.26%, Ed Balls eliminated
Round 4: David Miliband 49.35%, Ed Miliband 50.65%. Ed Miliband wins!

It wasn't exactly Cain and Abel but neither was it a Jedward outing. Brotherly love will be back very soon we are assured and, of course, all good socialists are brothers. I just hope Miliband Minor doesn't think he's got his prefect's tie as well!

Gordon Brown to go into showbiz on Friday!

He and David Miliband will try their hands at anything. They need a good gagwriter, though. The present script's definitely no good!

Guantanamo detainee arrives in UK

Binyam Mohamed, a detainee from the Guantanamo camp and a British resident of Ethiopian background is back on British soil. His tale of woe desperately needs examining, because what was done to him was done in our name. He says -

"It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways - all orchestrated by the United States government."

George Bush and Dick Cheney receiving truthful reports or adulterated stories? We need to know, because if the truth does not come out, anyone can be lifted from the streets and carted off to a hellhole.

He goes on to say -

"For myself, the very worst moment came when I realised in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions and materials from British intelligence.

I had met with British intelligence in Pakistan. I had been open with them. Yet the very people who I had hoped would come to my rescue, I later realised, had allied themselves with my abusers.

I am not asking for vengeance; only that the truth should be made known, so that nobody in the future should have to endure what I have endured."

David Miliband needs to come clean and not hide behind weasel words. His worst nightmare will be somebody exposing his knowledge at a time when he is least prepared for it.

Miliband in fake Commons denial!

David Miliband went to the House of Commons to assert that there was no truth in the United States intelligence services putting pressure on the UK authorities over intelligence sharing. This is in connection with the case of Binyam Mohamed, a 31 year old, originally from Ethiopia, once resident in the UK - and now into his fifth year of detention at Guantanamo Bay.

His lawyers are attempting to get him released but the Americans will go to any lengths to stop public knowledge of torture or cruel treatment being disclosed. Miliband's denial rings hollow. Channel 4 News has received a copy of a letter from John B Bellinger at the Department of State to Daniel Bethlehem, QC, at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It indeed shows pressure is being put on the British.

If President Obama wants to cleanse the world of this travesty of natural justice that is Guantanomo Bay, he will put an end to this ridiculous game of cover-up and camouflage. Otherwise his whole presidency will be marred by the leaks, innuendo and murmerings that are fed by the continuation of this place as a detention centre. These prisoners should be tried or freed, but not incarcerated without any due process.

It is a stain on us all, perpetuated by men prepared to lie and pervert justice in order to satisfy a crazed notion that this place promotes security. I feel far less secure because it is a cancer festering and feeding off the hearts and minds of those we claim we are helping in the "War on Terror".

Miliband's Heseltine Moment!

David Miliband is what my father would have called "a thruster" by which he meant someone to be wary of. Miliband is a bit loose with the tongue. Unlike the chirpy Hazel Blears, Miliband is more of the sidling up and conspiratorial grin type. If I were Gordon Brown I'd move him to be Leader of the House and get Hoon in, much as I detest Hoon for his duplicitous dealings over Iraq.

Miliband was overheard telling an aide, “I couldn’t have gone any further. It would have been a Heseltine moment.” He thinks!?! All the signs are there. He is being both disloyal and disingenuous. Miliband may be the bookies favourite, but I'd not lay any bets on him. If we are to get a possible new leader of the Labour Party, I'd plump for John Denham or Alan Johnson. The rest, well just look at the possibles from this set!

The Foreign Secretary said that he had toned down his Labour conference speech to avoid embarrassing Gordon Brown. Is that what he really thinks? He must think we were all born yesterday!

A well-coiled Miliband ready to spring

It seems Gordon Brown is doing his best to curry favour with the delegates at the Labour Party conference. After a summer of a little discontent, he is trying to re-establish his authority. Labour MPs are relatively cheered and Brown is getting a "bounce" in the opinion polls. Apparently some members of the British public think he is handling this present financial crisis well. Well enough to know spivs when he sees them. My only complaint on this subject is that he isn't doing much to contain them. OK, the short selling system has been defused, but the guys involved in all this are really Del Boys with computers. I know it sounds a bit snobby, but one of the problems with the Thatcher years was letting those that were used to market stall trading move into the computerised world of banking unchecked.

So Brown gets a little bit of peace coming his way. Doesn't stop those seeking to replace him from moving the chairs in the Cabinet Room. David Miliband is seen as an obvious choice by the media. But I think he will not have voter appeal at this time. However, he will be a contender, and he is like a jack-in-the-box currently. My hunch is that Alan Johnson will come through. He is a man who can sup with all kinds and still seem like one of them. He would give Labour back its working class inheritance whilst giving it the veneer of New Labour modernisation. But, unlike Miliband, is he ready to spring?