David Miliband (again)

It's time to check out David Miliband again, as the Labour Party conference ends. He's just started a new blog at last - he kept one while he was Environment minister and there was a long hiatus after he became Foreign secretary. but at last a new one is up and running, complete with YouTube videos.
There's been pages of publicity in the press in the last week or so - profiles, transcripts of speeches etc etc. Something that stands out is his ackowledgement that military intervention isn't always the solution; that Iraq was divisive in the party and country. Good intentions weren't enough.
He's clearly distancing himself from the Blair regime, as I expected he would, plus he's reinventing himself as a serious, heavyweight politician. This has meant talking slowly and ponderously in an attempt to seem profound. Nevertheless, he hasn't quite been able to rid himself of the Fotherington-Thomas 'hello birds, hello, bees' impression he always manages to give. There's a feeling that emanates from him that if we were all a bit nicer to each other the world would be a better place. This is certainly true, but it's not politics, which is, and always has been , dirty in the extreme.