Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Morning Miliband Watch

You can't beat an unqualified vague statement of support first thing in the morning. If you open today's papers you're greeted with one such statement in all its glory. David "I want to be the leader of the gang" Miliband said yesterday "“I am absolutely convinced Gordon can lead us to victory". It even got te desired effect with a headline in te Sun saying "Miliband backs Brown to win".

Thing is, as was noted back on the day he wrote that special article - that was in no way a leadership bid or a positioning piece - his statements of support always seem to use the word "can" rater than "will". If Miliband had really backed Brown yesterday he would have been absolutely convinced Gordon will lead them to victory rather than only can.

However, I digress, bcause it's not just here that Miliband is in the press. He's also written a piece for the Independent calling for a global treaty for the conventional arms trade akin to those that the exist for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. I wonder if the Foreign Office told the Ministry of Defence they were going to push this?

Seriously, it sounds like a useful and greatly fluffy idea, but the idea that the likes of America or Russia, two big players in the production of conventional wweapons, will happily sign up to a treaty that regulates their weapons exports is a bit way out there isn't it?

2 comments:

Letters From A Tory said...

Not sure the UK defence industry can take that kind of hammering at the moment either, such is our economy.

Anonymous said...

Great timing by Milliband, the US and Russia have just torn up their nuclear weapons treaties. More useless do-gooding legislation? Yes PLEASE!