David Miliband (3)

It's time to turn my attention to young Mr Miliband again on the occasion of his appointment as Foreign Secretary. I knew it wouldn't be long before he'd get something really important, and Brown gave him his reward for not standing against him. And it appears that Miliband made absolutely the right decision not to stand - he would have been dead in the water by now if he had as he would undoubtedly have lost. Now he's got a chance to shine - Foreign Secretary isn't the graveyard for ambition that Home Secretary almost invariably turns out to be. He won't have an easy ride - Iraq, the ever-expanding EU, the thorny question of our relationship with the US, all are potential banana-skins, but he's made all the right noises so far. Distancing himself from the previous regime for a start, and sounding humble and non-belligerent. Anyway we shall see. His blog's been suspended for the moment and I wonder if it'll come back to life - I would think it'll be difficult for him to muse in public in the same way when he's having to deal with matters of dealing with international security, it's not the same as recycling and climate change. I shall continue to watch his progress with interest - he hasn't disappointed me yet. He displays a wide-eyed innocence in public but underneath I believe there's calculation and steely intelligence. But I'm prepared to be proved wrong.