More like Clem

In my blog I have not always been very complimentary about Ed Miliband. Therefore when I read an article earlier suggesting that he might be the new Clement Attlee I was surprised to say the least: http://www.iaindale.com/posts/is-ed-miliband-the-new-clem-attlee?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

To my mind Attlee was the greatest peacetime (perhaps all-time) Prime Minister this country ever had. Like Ed Miliband, Attlee was no orator, but he ran his party and then government with consummate skill. Attlee played to his strengths and allowed his cabinet ministers to do the same; he certainly did not try to imitate Churchill. I suppose that if Ed Miliband plays to his own strengths and does not try to be yet another heir to Blair then the Attlee comparison might not seem so far fetched.

Churchill was often cruel to Attlee, despite having worked alongside him during the war years. On one occasion Churchill joked that an empty taxi pulled up outside parliament and Clement Attlee got out. Yet it was the quiet understated man that was to have the last laugh. I wonder if Ed Miliband has read Franicis Becket's article; he should.