AM I BOVVERED?

Cameron’s performance today at question time, though not his best, at least gave valuable credence to the debate surrounding the European treaty amendments. In contrast, Brown floundered, mistimed his (very poor) jokes, and looked very uneasy when confronted with the fact that even members of his own party were in favour of a referendum on any changes to the way the EEC dictates to us.

Today’s Daily Mail carries a pretty scathing indictment of Brown and the whole Euro “is it/is it not a constitution” argument. Penned by Quentin Letts, it is however the accompanying article which is perhaps even more interesting, the subject of controversy being our own David Miliband and his performance at yesterdays Commons European Scrutiny Committee. Resentful, petulant, nasal and bolshy are all words which have been used to describe the Foreign Secretary’s attitude to his fellow MP’s. Letts summarizes the display as such;

“He (Miliband) was certainly well briefed but was performing with such arrogance, such intemperance, that he lost any sympathy. It was a most unpolitical display. There was no gravitas. There was little ides of composure or, for that matter, of a vision……..If he behaves like this at summits he will lose us every negation going. Is Mr Brown sure this man is right for the job?”

As far as scathing criticism goes, it gets no worse than that!

This careless display by Miliband is not an isolated instance: his performance at Labour’s recent party conference was weak and ineffectual. He currently behaves like a man who believes that all this is beneath him and not worthy of his attention. I suspect he may be still nursing a bloody nose at not receiving enough support to attempt a challenge on the leadership when Blair fell on his own sword. If his recent petulant attitude is anything to go by, then perhaps those who failed to back him all those months ago knew more about him than the media did.