Is the “Climate Change” debate giving him the opportunity to shine?

The Labour leadership has appeared such a certainty for so long that we have barely discussed the “events dear boy – events” scenario of who would be in contention if something untoward happened to Gordon Brown or his campaign.

And there’s one figure who has started to pick up support again – David Miliband the young Environment Secretary. As the chart showing best betting prices illustrates there has been a bit of a move to Miliband which is probably linked to a series of recent assured performances on the climate change issue.

As the FT’s, Gideon Rachman, wrote this week there has been a flurry interest in the scientific case on climate change following a long and closely-argued attack in the Sunday Telegraph by Viscount Christopher Monckton, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher – “who like many Thatcherites suspects that global warming is a socialist plot.”

The Monckton article has “become a new sacred text for climate-change sceptics” and has helped keep it on the news agenda. All this has provided an excellent platform for the quiet intellectual approach of Miliband who always seems to be popping up in the media at the moment.

Clearly Miliband is not going to run against Gordon – but in the “what if” scenario he must be a better bet than John Reid.

Mike Smithson