THE BIG EXIT

DAVID Miliband has this afternoon announced that he will not stand for re-election to the Shadow Cabinet.

After days of speculation since the shock victory of his younger brother Ed Miliband, who was elected as Labour leader on Saturday, David finally announced his intention to quit front-line politics.

He expressed how he needed to “recharge his batteries” and would be looking forward to spending time with his family after so many years in front-line politics.

David wants to give his brother the space to be able to lead the Labour party free from comparison and without the continuing family soap opera that has been played out in the media.

However the door is not completely shut, David has not ruled out a return in one way or another in the future.

The Labour party must, on the one hand, be breathing a sigh of relief.

There is to be no repeat of the tense underlying relationship at the top of the party as seen when Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were in power.

On the other hand, the Shadow front bench has lost one of its strongest members.

David Miliband, the former Foreign Secretary, still has tremendous support within the party and would have brought a wealth of talent and experience to the new Shadow Cabinet.

One message that could be read by David Miliband’s actions today, is that he simply does not have confidence in his brother’s leadership of the Party nor the conviction to back Ed’s differing political positioning of Labour.

STAY OR GO?

THE political soap opera that has gripped the Labour party and the press for the past few days is soon to come to an end.

David Miliband will shortly make a statement about his political future.

He will state whether he is to stay in front-line politics seeking re-election to the shadow cabinet or as is highly speculated decline to serve under his younger brother Ed Miliband, Labour’s new leader.

After David’s reactions to Ed’s first key note speech as Labour leader in which he set out his stance on many of Labour’s policy including a denouncing of the Iraq war, it is expected that David will quit.

If David Miliband does leave the Labour front bench he will be a huge loss to Labour party.

He has been a big player and popular minister.

The Labour Party is proving again its taste for big drama.

'VICTORY' FOR ED

YESTERDAY, Ed Miliband (the younger and less attractive Miliband brother) was elected as the new Labour party leader at its autumn conference in Manchester.

He managed to scrape ahead of his brother David (the former foreign secretary) by a wafer thin margin of the vote, winning by only 1.3%. Ed, failing to win majority support from Labour MPs, MEPs and party members had his ‘victory’ secured by the Unions, who also get to vote in Labour Party leadership elections.

The new “hand puppet for the unions” will have to unite the Labour party after its worse defeat in history at the 2010 general elections. The dependence on the Unions vote to secure his victory may very well come back to bite him. Ed will find it a tough juggling act to please both the party - the majority of which didn’t vote for him as leader - and the Unions, who will want the Labour party to take a tough stance against the huge public sector job cuts expected to be made by Cameron’s Government.

The hesitant appointment of Ed well and truly marks the end of new Labour, as the ‘heir to Blair’ David Miliband failed to take the crown which he thought was in his grasp for the past few years. The party claims to be united under him, but how long will we have to wait for the backstabbing and plotting that seems to go hand in hand with Labour politics.

What will be the future for David Miliband’s political career in Westminster? His brother insists he deserves to play a vital role in the shadow cabinet, but will David be able to put up with serving his younger brother? It seems like too much of a bitter pill to swallow and perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of a new psycho drama within the top rank of the party.

Ed Miliband, the former adviser to Gordon Brown and author of the loosing Labour 2010 election manifesto apparently marks a new era for the Party and represents a new generation of Labour. But he has a lot to prove.

HERE WE GO AGAIN

TODAY, the Labour Party announced that Ken Livingstone is to be their candidate for the London mayoral elections in 2012.

Livingstone, who served two terms in office between 2000 and 2008 won 68.8% of the votes, defeating his rival, the former MP Oona King. It seems that Labour and London cannot shake off Mr Livingstone, having served as the first Mayor and previously as leader of the Greater London Council in the eighties he just keeps coming back.

So expect a rematch of the 2008 elections as Ken and Boris fight for City Hall, again. In his acceptance speech Ken stated; "everywhere you look Boris has broken promises and taken his axe to services Londoners rely on". Livingstone attacked Johnson for the cuts that are to hit Londoners in the year ahead. Mr Johnson did not comment on the event but a deputy said; “choosing to exhume Ken Livingstone is a very odd decision”. Unfortunately, we probably have two years of this tit for tat and Livingstone’s criticisms of Boris to look forward to, even if he does promises an ideological rather then personality contest.

Tomorrow is an even bigger day for the Labour Party, as they announce the results of their leadership contest. Rumours suggest that Ed Miliband will beat his older brother (and front runner for most of the campaign) David. Whoever wins, the party hopes to heal the deep wounds left by Gordon Brown’s defeat at the elections as they try and form a credible opposition to the coalition government.

STALKBOOK

LAST week Facebook launched, Places, a new application on its site that allows users to post their location in their status updates.

For a start do I, or anybody for that fact, really care if an old school ‘friend’ (who hasn’t spoken to me for years and I haven’t ‘liked’ or commented on any picture update or comment related to them) has just gone to Pret for lunch? The answer is probably no.

Places may have its merits for those out there who are inclined to stalk people in a professional way. It will no doubt make their lives easier. Besides this is it just a case of putting out yet more personal information on the net.

We very rarely think about the information or private data we post or publish on the Internet. It is undeletable, once released into the World Wide Web it is there forever. Facebook status updates and pointless tweets will be floating around cyberspace long after we die.

As we share more of our life online it’s important to remember that anyone out there could be reading.

FEELING REFRESHED?

HELLO to all slice of Pie readers out there. I have to admit that it has been a bit quiet on the blog post front for a few months. But I’m pleased to say the quiet spell is over.

Hold on to your laptops, or whatever Internet browsing device you use, take a deep breath from the shock of a blog entry, and expect to be checking back here a lot more often.

As you’ll probably notice, the blog has had a bit of a refresh too. With its new shiny design it should be a bit clearer and easier to read from. It is also possible for you to spread the word to anyone in the world at the touch of a button. At the bottom of each entry you will see logos for Facebook, Twitter, and other sites that allow you to share blog entries with others. And for that added user interaction, you can now rate each blog entry as well.

I hope you enjoy the changes.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

THE party political conference season has kicked off with the Liberal Democrats in Liverpool, and this year the news media are now paying attention to what is going on.

It’s funny to think that a year ago most people had not heard of the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg. It was laughable when in his conference speech last year he talked about a dream team Liberal Democrat Cabinet in government. Who would have thought that a year later Clegg would be the Deputy Prime Minister, with a handful of Lib Dem MPs joining him at the Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition cabinet table.

Now with a hand in power, and at a time when the coalition Government is having to make tough decisions, over the next few years Lib Dems will have to be involved in key decisions which often go against their party’s beliefs.

In his speech Clegg urged conference to ‘hold our nerve’ to serve a full five years in government and the British public to ‘stick with us’ through the cuts the coalition will have to make to slash the budget deficit. The Liberal Democrats may be putting on a brave face now but when the coalition Government start to make budget cuts will there still be an appetite for the LibCon team? How much will change by time Clegg makes his conference speech next year?

PUTTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

YESTERDAY, the Foreign Secretary, William Hague was forced to make a very personal statement regarding his private life after one of his aids quit amid “malicious” rumours of a relationship between the pair.

It was alleged in the blogosphere, that the 25-year-old Christopher Myers, was under-qualified for his role and had only reached the position due to an improper relationship. It was stated that the pair had shared hotel rooms whilst on the campaign trail.

Hague felt obliged to make information about his wife, Ffion and his struggle to start a family public to dispel the rumours. For the first time he told of the multiple miscarriages his wife Ffion had suffered, including one this summer which the couple were still grieving from.

It’s a classic case of a story forced to the top of the national news pile by non-entity bloggers and wannabe citizen journalists for the wrong reasons. Yes we should probe into the ‘qualifications’ of Mr Myers and if he was experienced enough for his role. But should it have been done in such a mucky, smeary way across the Internet?

On a less serious note with regards to the hotel room sharing between Hague and Myers, shouldn’t we be commending the pair for saving money? Maybe it was just another one of Mr Cameron’s cost cutting measures?