Miliband rises up against Brown

David Miliband’s declaration of war on Gordon Brown is more brave than self-regarding, given that defeat at the next election seems inevitable...

David Miliband’s declaration of war on Gordon Brown is more brave than self-regarding, given that defeat at the next election seems inevitable and that he was most likely to be anointed in the aftermath. There is no longer any doubt about [Miliband’s] desire to lead. He has not (yet) struck a fatal blow. But if Mr Brown were to offer him the chancellorship in a September reshuffle, it is now difficult to see how he could honourably accept.

What may matter even more than who leads the party is what it stands for. Switching to a more media-friendly face will not end voters’ frustration over Iraq. It will not sap the mounting desire for revenge on a government that has squandered too much of our money for too little benefit… It will not change the feeling that Labour has been utterly cynical about the people it is supposed to represent. We all know that politics is a con some of the time. It has begun to feel like politics is a con almost all of the time.

The hole that Labour is in goes deeper than the economy. So it is important to understand what “platform for change” Mr Miliband is proposing. His pitch is that a refreshed Labour Party must combine “government action and personal freedom”. But he is shy about saying where the balance should be struck… The only policies that he mentioned sounded strangely like a manifesto for more government. [He] needs to elucidate. For this is the ground on which he wants to fight the other David. D. Miliband has been a shrewder analyst of D. Cameron than any of his cabinet colleagues. From early on in the Cameron ascendancy he saw a serious threat. Now he has decided that Labour should define itself as optimistic, passionate about progressive ideals, and the Conservatives as pessimistic, bemoaning a “broken society” that doesn’t exist… But the danger with making this the new fault line in British politics is that Mr Cameron got there first.

Excerpted from a comment by Camilla Cavendish in ‘The Times’

A court in Antwerp passed the order initiating the formal process of bringing Choksi back to India. But, he still has options to challenge the order passed by the lower court.

Belgian court clears fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi’s extradition to India

India19 min ago

Mehul Choksi, a fugitive diamantaire wanted in India for a Rs 13,000 crore loan fraud case, has been cleared for extradition by a court in Antwerp, Belgium. The Indian government has assured that Choksi will be held in a specific jail complex and provided with basic amenities if extradited. Choksi's extradition proceedings have advanced in Belgium and he has the option to challenge the order.

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