I picked the right day to – finally! – sign up for Facebook: yesterday saw another very new media-literate speech by David Miliband, and another venture into YouTube. (Personally I wouldn’t have let him stand to do this; it does affect your tone of voice, and I think it’s to his detriment here.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw83heBf3mk]
The speech itself, at Google’s Zeitgeist conference, was a return to his pet theme of ‘how the spirit of the age requires a new type of politics, and how the new tools of the age can help deliver economic and social change.’ In truth, if you read the New Statesman piece, most of this will be familiar. But it’s still actually a little exciting to see a Cabinet minister – and potentially a future Prime Minister – talking about Web 2.0, Facebook, Linux and the like. (Er, we’ll overlook the spelling of ‘wikipaedia’ in the transcript.)
Miliband clearly sees this as his Big Idea. The speech touches on education, transport, environment, community… a month or two back, this would have been interpreted as his bid for Labour’s leadership. Since that moment has passed, and the job now unlikely to become vacant for a few years at least, we’re left with the conclusion that he actually believes it.
I’m fascinated to see where Miliband ends up post-reshuffle. I hear he has won a lot of friends at Defra, and they would be sorry to lose him. But if environmental issues are to be an electoral battleground next time round, as seems likely, don’t be surprised if he stays where he is.