Finally the Cult of David Miliband is Over

It's finally happened. The Cult of David Miliband is finally on its way out along with the man himself. His goodbye letter in the New Statesman has been greeted with nice dose of scepticism and criticism whereas three years ago the reaction would have been adulation and astonishment at his great insight.

It has long been the greatest mystery of modern British politics that anyone at all spoke of this mediocrity as the great statesman of our time and then mourned with much lamentation at the Great Betrayal by his brother Ed Miliband.

Can anyone name a single act by David Miliband that has improved the lives of British people or increased the nation's standing in the world? Does anyone know a single sentence of a David Miliband speech or article that is memorable or quotable as being of great value, insight or inspiration?

No, me neither. One can only conclude that certain journalists must have expended much time and effort on lunching and cultivating the elder Miliband in the hope that when this prince among men ascended to his rightful place their careers would ascend with him.

This can be the only explanation for the ludicrous inflation of Miliband's reputation and for the great bitterness amongst his supporters that Ed Miliband "betrayed his brother".

The fratricide allegation is the most outrageous claim of the Davidians made against the Edwardians. Had David won wouldn't that also have been a "betrayal" of his own brother?

Like Germany circa 1920 it was apparently much more comforting to imagine betrayal rather than confront the truth that the losing side was simply outplayed in a game in which the rules and terms of trade were well known and adhered to by both sides.

Did David Miliband not know that the union vote was important in Labour leadership elections? Have David's supporters forgotten that far from being "elected by the unions" Ed Miliband got a large chunk of his support from Labour MPs, albeit to a slightly lesser degree than David?

Some claim that David Miliband's greatest political sin was to be photographed with a banana. The truth is far more boring. His were sins of omission.

He failed to dispose of Gordon Brown when he had the chance, he failed to win the Labour leadership despite being the frontrunner and he failed to enact a single policy or utter a single word that anyone remembers in any way at all. His only success was to convince a cabal of journalists and politicians that he had the makings of a political demi-god (which admittedly must have taken some doing).

Thankfully the pixie dust is finally wearing off and it is now plain to everyone that David Miliband is not the Messiah nor even a very naughty boy, but a rather average former minister who speaks in jargon and clichés to such an extent that if he ever did have anything interesting to say no one would ever notice.