His brother's choice of snack makes for fascinating reading, but more interesting still is the peeling away of fellow contender Ed Miliband's layers of compassion
There is something intrinsically humbling about democracy. The website of Labour leadership favourite David Miliband currently lists ten things we might not know about the ex-foreign secretary, including the salient facts that his favourite book is The Gruffalo and his preferred snack a Twirl. Just in case you thought it was a banana.
The same humility is evident at many of the Labour leadership hustings being held around the country. Here you can witness, as I did last Saturday in central London, before a thousand-plus audience, four senior ex-ministers and a veteran backbencher-turned-TV-star bidding for one of the trickiest jobs in politics with all the eagerness of novices.
All, bar Diane Abbott, face a contradictory and in some senses impossible task. On the one hand, they are finally being called publicly to account by a broader Labour movement for New Labour’s record in office. While there is pride in some government achievements, many issues provoke strong feelings.
Leading contenders Ed and David Miliband have promised to ‘reconnect’ with party members, while Andy Burnham has said that Labour spent too much time ‘courting elites’ and did not do enough to promote genuine social mobility or close the gap between rich and poor.
On the other hand, there is real debate about how Labour should now position itself in relation to the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition on voting reform, education, tax and, particularly, cuts in public spending.
Judging from the hustings I attended, the candidates’ approach to the new government is very much a work in progress. There is resigned acceptance that voting reform will have to come and most of the candidates pledged support for the alternative vote, the least dramatic change on offer.
There is far less clarity about whether or when to oppose particular policies, some of which bear a remarkable similarity to those of New Labour.
Abbott was the only contender to come out clearly in opposition to the new Academies Bill, currently being rushed through Parliament with almost indecent haste.
Most of the Labour leadership candidates put great stress on the fact that Labour academies put resources into disadvantaged areas while the coalition now wants to free only the best schools from state control. But will they actually vote against the Gove Bill? It wasn’t clear.
The most searching questions last Saturday were on the deficit and how to deal with it. With a little help from shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne and its own pet quango, the OBR, the coalition has skilfully exploited the economic scenario to paint a picture of Labour irresponsibility.
According to those who sat through the Queen’s Speech, the new political mood music set by the coalition now deems any defence of public spending as silly, romantic, old Left dreaming.
So far, most of the leadership candidates are sticking doggedly to the economic argument put forward by liberal academics such as David Blanchflower that public spending is necessary for economic revival and that coalition cuts represent the old Tory savagery in new form.
Abolition of the Future Jobs Fund, reduced university places and the ending of the Child Trust Fund are economically foolish, socially unjust and represent broken Tory election promises to protect the most vulnerable.
Inevitably though, would-be Labour leaders are being asked about tax rises as an answer to economic emergency. Burnham claimed with surprising frankness that New Labour had been ‘too timid’ on the issue.
Balls and David Miliband came out in support of the Tobin Tax, hardly a revolutionary pledge given that Gordon Brown successfully lobbied for the policy at the G20 last year.
Ed Miliband is the most outspoken on this central question of economic redistribution. He has now come out in favour of both a high pay commission and a living wage. Last Saturday, he argued we should have a standing tax on banker’s bonuses.
His willingness to put policy flesh on Old Labour dreams of genuine social justice, allied to his reputation as a skilful Commons performer and media savvy communicator, could yet secure the leadership for the younger Miliband brother. Now, if only we knew what his favourite snack is...
Melissa Benn is a writer and journalist
