IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR

I NEVER REALLY felt terribly happy about the two Milibands being in Gordon Brown’s Cabinet. Nor was I in the least at ease with the idea that Mrs and Mr Ed Balls were both Secretaries of State. It seemed to me during my extremely brief encounter with the awful civil service that, if members of the same family were not allowed to work in the same office at the most junior of ranks, then it was plain wrong for people at the “top” to be allowed to. However, I put their inclusion down less to their invaluableness than to the dire shortage of any talent of any kind available in the Commons to Brown government. The appointment of Jacquie Smith and continual adding to the Lords of dubious ministerial talent was indication that there was little to be found of any use in the elected house.

Now with old Grumpy Guts out of the way, it seems that the same lack of talent presents itself for election to the role of leader of the opposition..... the only opposition, now that Nick Clegg has deserted it for the Deputy Prime Minister’s seat.

So it was without much surprise that I heard today that along with his brother David, Ed Miliband was to run for leader. He announced his bid for the top job at the Fabian Society, telling his audience that the party had lost touch with its “values and people". He also criticised Labour’s recent record on civil liberties, including the ID cards scheme, and claimed its election campaign suffered from having “too many men and not enough women”. (I wonder if that was a bid to get the Harridan to vote for him.) So he was happy about the ID cards and now he’s not.

(I wish people would stop going on about not enough women, or not enough minority ethnics or gays or penguins or whatever. There’s nothing stopping people of either sex, of any sexuality and any ethnic origin getting involved [ok, there are issues over penguins]. Either they don’t want to or no one votes for them. It’s a democracy. Eat it up and get over it.)

Fortunately for all of us Yvette Balls has ruled herself out, but her husband is still testing the water, which would suggest he has no intention of standing unless he thinks he’s going to win, or at least not be humiliated like Peter Hain was when he came last in the Deputy Leadership race. I assume that Harriet Harman is not going to have the good grace to stand down and give the party the chance to elect a new team.

I’d like to see the New Politics (DaveNick) bring in a rule that will stop members of the same family being in the same Cabinet. I don’t think it is right that two brothers might have the top two jobs, or if Balls were to win that he might appoint his wife to some task well above her limited abilities to keep her sweet... or indeed sack her because she burnt the dinner!

Pics: The Brothers Miliband and the Balls.