It still doesn't seem to have dawned on the British electorate how utterly ghastly most Labour MPs are these days. While socialism has been shown beyond any doubt to be a misguided ideology which in F.A. Hayek's words would "destroy much of present humankind and impoverish the rest," if you go back to the 1945-51 Attlee Labour government, it included a number of very sincere men, even if they were sincerely wrong. Indeed, some genuine Christians, including Keir Hardie, Philip Snowden and Attlee's chancellor Sir Stafford Cripps, have been beguiled by socialism. Nowadays, however, genuine, honourable Labour MPs are a pretty rare breed. Austin Mitchell, Kate Hoey and Frank Field spring to mind, although the latter rather blotted his copybook with a silly outburst when the Church of England's General synod voted against women bishops. The more decent types don't tend to rise up through the ranks, rather like withdrawalist MPs in Dave's party.
Those that do get to the top tend to be permeated with the poisonous ideology of the Frankfurt school, with its commitment to undermine the foundations of western society, especially Christianity. The whole "New Labour" project which Tony Blair brought to fruition saw the old-fashioned socialist agenda of nationalisation of the means of production replaced with the destructive ideals of multiculturalism and political correctness. It also replaced old Labour's one good point - its Euroscepticism - with a cringing Europhilia that saw the Nice and Lisbon treaties signed in defiance of the clear wishes of the British people. David Miliband was one of the architects of the 1997 "New Labour" manifesto, and was seen as the obvious "heir to Blair", which is why the traditional Labour types preferred his brother. He epitomised everything that was so awful about the Blair years, which will go down in history as the worst government to rule Britain since the days of the Stuart kings in he 17th century. His defeat in the Labour leadership contest does not seem to have instilled any common sense into him. He recently teamed up with his mentor to advise David Miliband against offering an in'/out referendum on our EU membership. Fortunately, Cameron chose to ignore them.
The size of the man's ego is staggering. He claimed that his relationship with his brother was proving a distraction in Labour's fight against the Tories. Really? I don't think most people noticed, or even cared. In fact, I read a report that some people still think "David" when they hear "Ed." They hardly know who is who. If you, dear reader, are in this position, this is how you tell the difference - David is even uglier than his brother.
For his part, Ed said that British politics would be poorer without him. Well, I would disagree, and am delighted he is leaving this country. I just hope he never comes back. A writer in today's Times called him "the most dazzling Labour prospect of his generation." If this awful man was indeed the best, then let us hope that the not-so dazzling Labour prospects NEVER gain power, or Britain will sink without trace. His political obituary has already been written a couple of months ago by Fraser Nelson in The Spectator, although it could equally well apply to most of Labour's top brass these days: David Miliband, he wrote, is "one who will do anything for the working class, except trust them." .