Was Cam right to get on the band-wagon?

Suddenly how the Mili-brothers, particularly David, look is becoming a leadership election issue.

Ed Miliband supporters are said to have a sticker which says simply “Ed speaks human”.

Iain Martin in the Wall Street Journal wrote: “David Miliband looks, in theory, like the grown-up but it is obvious that he is a man stuck on planet politics trying to do an impression of a leader who understands people (”I’m real”). “

And even the PM has got in on the act. At PMQs yesterday he said the contest looked more like a Star Trek convention than an election and joked ‘beam me up’.

Whether this was the right thing to do, and I think Cam made a mistake to bring it up in the way he did, there’s little doubt that “how he comes over” is David Miliband’s biggest challenge. There is something unworldly about him and in an election your opponents will use anything to try to impede you, especially if you are the runaway favourite.

Whatever I am sure that all the candidates will be relieved to know that Ed Balls said yesterday that “there will be no off-the-record briefings from anybody involved with me.” Is it uncharitable to observe that this does, of course, leave room for him to do it himself?

Mike Smithson