The game of political chess on which Ed Miliband must now embark is a dangerous one; but he can be rescued by his brother. The choice of Shadow Cabinet positions is a choice likely to define Ed’s tenure at the helm of Labour. He’s in a strange position – the party’s leader but not one of its strongest personalities. Just as Thatcher faced a Cabinet of older, more experienced politicians when she was elected leader, so Ed is, for the moment at least, not the strongest of figures around his table.
The primary obstacle is Ed Balls. Over presumptuous Tories have been rejoicing at “Red” Ed’s election, thinking they’ve got the election in the bag. If Balls gets the Shadow Chancellorship, they might well be right. It would be hard for such a partnership to escape being branded (or maybe actually being) a trade union stooge. Both also spent most of their political lives playing Gordon Brown’s henchmen, which hardly makes them a pair to preside over a new, united Labour Party.
Sadly though, Ed can’t just give Ed the slip. EM relied on EB’s votes to become the leader, and EB has been vying to become Shadow Chancellor pretty much since the leadership contest began. A better pick for EM would be Yvette Cooper, the notably bright economist with experience at Work and Pensions. Yet domestic rivalries come into play once more – I can’t see Mrs Ed Balls taking her husband’s dream job right from under his nose.
This is where David comes in. If big brother decides to stay in politics, then EM will be hoping he takes the Shadow Chancellorship for him. EB would be angry, but the appointment would be clearly justified enough for him to stay quiet. Fears that this would usher in a new era of TB-GBs are unjustified – David has learnt his lesson about publicly being seen to build his own power base in wait for a leadership battle. His only option would be to become of fully integrated part of his brother’s machine.
More importantly, David would lend his brother some serious national appeal. Labour would not be a trade union machine under the brothers. Rather it would appear to be a genuine coalition of left leaning interests, fighting to save Britain from Tory cuts. The unity of two competing brands of thought, caught metaphorically in the unity of two competing brothers, will be easy to communicate.
With David as Shadow Chancellor, Ed’s dithering over deficit reduction will stop (rather than be exacerbated as it would be with Balls). David has publicly committed to backing Alastair Darling’s halve it in four years plan – which should probably be credited with stopping the Tories winning a majority in the Commons. Acknowledging the deficit, acknowledging it as a problem, pledging to solve it in a measured way, but still attacking Osborne for making vicious cuts to please his sick masochist tendencies is probably Labour’s best strategy.
