New New Labour, New Old Labour... all the same Labour in the end

This week has seen much debate in the build up to, announcement of, and fallout from the Labour Leadership contest.


In the end the eventual winner by the narrowest of margins we 'Red' Ed Miliband. This being the portrayal of this Miliband brother through the press, which i'm sure many Labour members, certainly in Midlothian, would hope to be true. Courting the Unions vote as he did many could be forgiven for thinking that yes, this could be a potential Labour leader who is in fact a Socialist, something far removed from the New Labour approach of Tony Blair, most of whose policies seemed somewhere to the right of the Iron Lady herself.


After all this great build up it was then something of a surprise to hear 'Red' Ed proclaim in his speech that he is focussed on regaining Middle England.... hang on a minute... wasn't that the approach of Mr Blair... so not quite so red after all. As the week has gone on and we hear more from the new leader of the opposition in Westminster it has become clearer that, while he may be just slightly to the Left of his brother, there is little chance of any shift in the Labour Party under Ed the not so red.


After the contest results were announced the Labour Party have of course been incredibly helpful in publishing the full breakdown by constituency of how their members voted. Since it was there I did decide to take a look. Somewhat surprisingly Midlothian only has 196 Labour Party members. Clearly not the powerhouse of the area used to be. It is telling though that the clear winner in Midlothian was Ed himself (71) with brother David receiving (33)


Below is the outcome of the Midlothian Labour Party votes for their party
leader.


Diane Abbot 4
Ed Balls 15
Andy Burnham 6
David Miliband 33
Ed Miliband 71
Spoilt 1


Votes Cast 130


So while the knifes are sharpened and the inquiry begins into how the Labour Party have a Leader who was second overall in the votes of Members and MP's, at least we know Ed will have a save place to come to in Midlothian.... if he can find it!


For anybody interested this link shows the breakdown in each constituency area.


http://www2.labour.org.uk/leadership-clps