Is Ed Miliband a Future Prime Minister In Waiting?

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Is Ed Miliband a future Prime Minister in waiting? Or is he just holding the fort for the time being?

I think that to be an effective leader of any political party one needs to act and look like a future Prime Minister. Unfortunately the current leader of the Labour party comes across as some kind of person from another dimension and to be frank that is not at all ideal in a possible PM.

In the past many other party leaders have managed this quite easily. A good example from the Labour party would of course be Tony Blair. He had a natural feel good factor that meant that he always looked very comfortable and personable thus making him in some ways a very credible candidate for the highest office in Great Britain.

The phrases I am trying to find are Gravitas and Charisma.

John Major a great Prime Minister displayed similar qualities in his own way.

Looking back in the past there have been Politicians who at some time in their career have had this gravitas but then have often lost it and with it their policital career shortly therafter.

Margaret Thatcher would be a very good example of a leader who had gravitas and then it slipped away from under her nose as she failed to listen to or understand the electorate.

Back in 1987 Margaret Thatcher appeared very credible in her leading role as Prime Minister and came across as a natural always making progress for Britain in European and World affairs.

Not only was she totally self assured, calm and collected she earned and received respect. However just a few years later by 1990, she was no longer a rising star but a burnt out one. She appeared to have lost the plot and became a liability not only both to her party but also the country.

Dave Cameron provides a very similar performance on the world stage.

When he stood up to the plate at the 2005 Tory conference and made that speech for the Tory leadership it was clear that this was a man who was born not only to be the leader of the Conservative party but more importantly to be Prime Minister.

The greatest hurdle that any opposition leader has to face in looking the part obviously depends on the calibre of the opponent whoever is the Prime Minister at the time.

Lets face it Cameron is a rather smooth operator and certainly knows his onions. Ed Miliband on the other hand is somewhat new to the ropes!

Looking back over the years John Major appeared to be the most Prime Ministerial but when a new opposition leader Tony Blair was on the scene in 1997, the game had dramatically changed.

In the run up to 1997 "Black Wednesday" had happened on 16 September 1992 and this was a defining moment of failure for John Major's government and the British economic policy of that time that wanted to link the pound sterling with the German Mark. .

Apart from that the run up to 1997 had been a very tough parliament but all of these factors were not the main reason for the change in the way Major appeared.

The obvious reason was that John Major was now having to face up to a new rising star in the form of Tony Blair who had a very clever charm. Whilst in 1992, he was up against Neil Kinnock a person who never really looked or sounded as if they would be capable to run Gt Britain.

Occaisionally it may be possible to fool some of the people some of the time and appear to act like a future Prime Minister when in fact that is simply not the case.

A good example of that is Gordon Brown who managed to do this in the years leading up to when he suceeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister in 2007.

He did this by operating out of his bunker and using many support people including Ed Miliband thus keeping him self out of so many things to the extent that he did not know what Britain was doing in Afahanistan and Iraq.

Gordon Brown was kept very much out of the political limelight as much as possible and did not allow the British public to know what he was really like in truth.

Fortunately for Dave Cameron but unfortunately for Miliband that idea is simply not available to the Leader of the Opposition.

That position is undoubtedly one of the mosttoughest in British politics and ducking away simply does not work. If for example Gordon Brown had been in that position he would never have been elected by the British public.

This I think has to be Miliband's greatest problem as he cannot simply do what his predecessor Gordon Brown did and hide away in his bunker and pray for the best. I forget that as he is an agnostic clearly praying can not be an option for him. Well if he can not engage with God clearly he will have to engage with the British public.

He has to deal with a very capable Prime Minister who is having to sort out a very large deficit left behind by the previous Labour government of which Miliband was a member and his brother David Miliband was the foreign secretary.

Ed Miliband does appear to be as a gangly rather odd speaking person to say the least.

He is I beleive most likely to remain an awkard type of figure and has already been likened to characters such as Basil Brush and appears to struggle to communicate clearly.

The reason why Ed Miliband is finding his first hundred days as leader of the Labour party heavy weather and is probably going to fail is that he does not look like a probable Prime Minister in waiting more like a leader in waiting and one who is going to have a very long wait.

This is the reason why Junior Miliband is struggling, so poorly and is doomed to failure. Quite simply, he does not walk or talk like a Prime Minister in waiting.

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