Who is David Miliband

David Wright Miliband, PC, MP, was born in London on 15 July 1965. He is the eldest son of the late Ralph Miliband, who was born in Belgium and Polish-born Marion Kozak.

His father's parents lived in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw, before his grandfather, Samuel Miliband, joined the Red Army in the Polish-Soviet War. After the war the family moved to Belgium, where Hitler's invasion in May 1940 separated the family. Ralph and his father Samuel fled to England, while his mother Renée and baby sister Nan stayed behind for the duration of the war. They were not reunited until 1950.

Although born in London, Miliband's early education took place in Leeds before returning to London to complete his schooling. He studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, then in 1988/9 he won a Kennedy Scholarship and studied for a Masters' degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Miliband's first job was in the voluntary sector, where he worked for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. He then became a policy analyst at the Institute for Public Policy Research. Aged 29, Miliband became Tony Blair's Head of Policy while the Labour Party was then in opposition. He was a major contributor to Labour's manifesto for the 1997 general election which brought the party to power. Blair made him head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit from 1997 to 2001, when Miliband was elected to Parliament.

Miliband spent the next several years in various junior ministerial posts in the British government, including at the Department for Education and Skills, before becoming Environment Secretary. When Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister, Miliband was promoted to Foreign Secretary, the youngest person to hold the position in 30 years, aged 41.

South Shields has a long history of mining and seafaring. The record books show it is the only constituency in existence since the Great Reform Act of 1832 never to have elected a Conservative Member of Parliament.

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In 1998 Miliband married Louise Shackleton, an American violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra. They met three years earlier when they sat beside each other on a flight from Rome to London. They have two sons who were adopted in the USA, which caused a lot of controversy in the UK.

The Milibands were present at the births of both their children, in the USA, in December 2004 and 2007. The cirucmstances surrounding their parentage are not known.

Following the adoption of the eldest boy a Government inquiry cleared Miliband, then a junior Education Minister, of claims made by the Tories that the couple had used his position to "fast-track" the paperwork for the adoption.

In the UK, anyone wanting to adopt a newborn baby can face an agonising wait of years while they are vetted. A process which, say critics, is too bureaucratic. Milband explained that his wife has dual UK/USA citizenship, which gave her adoption rights in the USA, where couples can pay around £20,000 (approx $36,000) to adopt a newborn baby.

Professor Kate Wilson, of the University of Nottingham, said: "Because of the age factor they probably wouldn't even be approved in the UK as adopters. Additionally, it is not so easy to adopt babies in Britain as the supply of infants is very limited now."

There was more controversy when the Milibands adopted another baby in October 2007. It was announced that the Foreign Secretary was on paternity leave, just before a very sensitive meeting was due to take place with the Saudi foreign minister, just hours before the start of a state visit by the kingdom's ruler.

Friends of Miliband said he was forced to pull out of the meeting because of the child's early birth at an undisclosed location in the USA. His office refused to provide any details on the adoption, citing security and privacy reasons. The couple reinforced the message in a letter to news organisations asking that their privacy be respected.

The Foreign Office refused to say how much notice the Saudi government was given of Mr Miliband's decision not to attend what was supposed to be a landmark Two Kingdoms Conference, promoting strong economic and political ties. The Prime Minister's spokesman said: "I'm not going to get into any details regarding the Foreign Secretary's personal circumstances. The Prime Minister was aware of the situation."

Milband's younger brother Ed, 39, followed him into Parliament in 2005 and in 2007 they became the first pair of brothers to serve in the Cabinet together since 1938. Ed Miliband was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office on 28 June 2007.

When he became Secretary of State for the Environment, Miliband was the first Senior Government Minister to start writing a blog. He said "I found it a great way to engage with people: to explain my work and my thinking in a more personal and less formal way than the usual Ministerial speeches; and to hear directly what people thought of what I was doing."

However, the blog caused controversy, when it was launched in June 2006, as Chris Huhne, MP for Eastleigh in Hampshire and Liberal Democrat spokesman for Home Affairs, calculated that the blog would cost £40,000 (approx $71,500) per year to maintain.

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"The window of opportunity to avoid dangerous climate change is closing more quickly than previously thought."

"What's now urgently needed [to stop environmental disaster] is the international political commitment to take action to avoid dangerous climate change."

"The case for going greener is stronger than ever."

During Tony Blair's premiership criticism of the United States and Israel was unheard of. However, Miliband took the opportunity to criticise the Israeli attack on Hezbollah in 2007, while his Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, was defending Israel. Miliband also made a speech in the USA in which he said that climate challenge would be met only with "strong leadership" in Washington.

David Miliband's Jewish background will have significance particularly in the Middle East. Many Israelis and Jews around the word will relish the fact that someone with his dramatic family history has made it to one of the high offices in British and World diplomacy.

One of the biggest issues facing him is Iraq - the day of his appointment to the Foreign Office was overshadowed by the deaths of three British soldiers. It is believed that he is in favour of getting British troops out of Iraq as soon as possible, which is consistent with Gordon Brown's declared policy of withdrawing when conditions allow.

Since first becoming a senior member of the British Government, with his appointment to the post of Environment Minister by Tony Blair, Miliband has grown in confidence and popularity. He chose to commemorate his first year as Foreign Secretary with press interviews. This coincided with the first anniversary of Gordon Brown's premiership. However, the Prime Minister kept a very low profile that day, due to his own waning popularity.

Will Miliband be confident enough to challenge Gordon Brown for the leadership?

"I pledge diplomacy that is patient as well as purposeful, which listens as well as leads."

"Afghanistan embodies some of the biggest challenges for foreign policy"

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According to many national newspapers the Foreign Secretary had to endure an offensive "four-letter word" stream of abuse from the Russian Foreign Minister who did not like being lectured by a much younger man on the Russian offensive in Georgia.

An undisclosed source who has seen the transcript of the conversation said it was so littered with the "F word" that it was difficult to draft a readable note of the conversation. One unconfirmed report suggested that Lavrov said: "Who are you to f*****g lecture me?"

In return it is also understood that Lavrov asked about Britain and America's invasion of Iraq. Sources at the Foreign Office confirmed there was swearing "but only from one side". A spokesman for the Foreign Secretary said: "We do not discuss diplomatic conversations between foreign ministers."

After that sort of experience anything Gordon Brown and his allies can muster in response to Miliband's leadership ambitions is likely to be mild in comparison!

He is relatively young to be a senior politician

He is articulate

He is personable

He is a politician

He is a politician

He supports Arsenal

What David Miliband said in an interview by Kim Ghattas of the BBC:

"I feel very lucky to be Foreign Secretary in Gordon Brown's cabinet and that's the job I'm intending to do."

Hmmmm, we'll see....

In an interview in The Independent published to coincide with the first anniversary of his appointment as Foreign Secretary, Miliband had this to say about why things had gone badly wrong for Gordon Brown:

"I am in the slightly odd position of predicting it would be like this." (His original comment, made on BBC TV's "Question Time" was meant to be an observation about the inconsistency of public opinion, but was taken as anti-Brown in some quarters.) "I don't want to say I told you so, but it was always going to be tough to win a fourth election, defying political gravity. In addition leaders around the world are unpopular. I know that is not a very comforting point."

And on challenging Gordon Brown for the Leadership:

"I am not going there. I am utterly determined to be a very good foreign secretary in a Gordon Brown government. All other speculation is literally idle."

Only a few weeks later Miliband had an article published in The Guardian, which was regarded as very thinly veiled criticism of Gordon Brown's leadership. Amongst other things he said:

"But in government, unless you choose sides, you get found out. New Labour won three elections by offering real change, not just in policy but in the way we do politics. We must do so again. So let's stop feeling sorry for ourselves, enjoy a break, and then find the confidence to make our case afresh."

The BBC reports that Foreign Secretary David Miliband has thrown his support behind the prime minister and rejected calls for a Labour leadership contest.

That happens a lot in the UK, not just in politics but also in football. After a run of bad results, the Club Chairman publicly declares his backing of the Team Manager and then five days later dismisses him!

According to the Daily Telegraph friends have revealed that Louise Miliband has told her husband that he has her full support in his attempts to replace Gordon Brown.

It has long been rumoured that the Foreign Secretary's failure to mount a challenge for the leadership in the run up to Tony Blair's departure in 2007 was due to Mrs Miliband's reluctance to expose her family to the public glare and media attention. However, it is now believed that she has changed her mind.

Extracts from an article published in the Daily Mirror

What David Miliband said in Bath about a leadership challenge:

"We're not having a leadership campaign - there isn't a vacancy," he says. "Gordon is a man of deep values, enormous integrity and real intelligence - and we've got to get that message out there."

What David Miliband said about his family:

"My family is the most important thing in my life. That's what you're testing yourself against. Your family is there long before politics and long after politics."

William Hague (Tory MP and Shadow Foreign Secretary) says about David Miliband:

"He is very clever, there is no doubt about that, but he has not yet developed the weight that is necessary, and cleverness cannot make up for that. I respect him, but he's an unknown quantity. On the basis of my experience, the best thing for him to do would be to sit it out for a decade."

The irony is that is probably what Hague should have done. He served as leader of the Conservative Party between 1997 and 2001 and is probably a far better politician and potential leader now than he was then.

Only in a Dictatorship do you get a national leader who has not been elected by the population - or do you?

In the United Kingdom, the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are split into 646 Parliamentary constituencies. In a General Election each voter has one vote, which they allocate to one of the candidates standing for Parliament in their local constituency.

The candidate with the most votes becomes the Member of Parliament (MP) for that constituency and represents all of those living in their constituency in the House of Commons, even those who didn't vote for them. This system is known as First Past the Post.

In many instances the voters will vote along "party lines", regardless as to who they are voting for at local level - they vote for whichever party has the leader that they want to become Prime Minister.

After a general election the leader of the political party with the most MPs in the House of Commons is asked by the Queen to become Prime Minister and to form a Government that will manage the country. The leader of the party with the second highest number of seats becomes the Leader of the Opposition. However, if for any reason the Prime Minister stands down during their Term of Office or if they should die while in office, the members of their Political party elect a new leader who will become Prime Minister.

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In America, at least the Presidential Candidates have a running mate, who the population accept will become President in the event of the death of the elected President as in the case of Lyndon B Johnson or if the President is forced to resign as in the case of Richard Nixon, who was succeeded by Gerald Ford.

Tony Blair resigned as British Prime Minister in 2007, without knowing for definite who his successor would be. Gordon Brown was elected unopposed as leader of the Labour Party and automatically became Prime Minister.

Since 1902 a total of FIFTEEN British Prime Ministers have resigned while on office. Of these only THREE have reliquished their posts due to poor health!

Should Gordon Brown be ousted from his position then the UK will be saddled with yet another unelected Prime Minister.

British newspapers reported towards the end of September that when asked about his Leadership ambitions, David Miliband laughs and says that people are confusing him with his brother Ed!

10 February 2009

David Miliband has been asked to appear before the UK Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) amid growing concern that the British government may have breached international law by colluding in the alleged torture of British citizens in Pakistan.

The JCHR has also asked the Attorney General, Lady Scotland, to explain what action she has taken to investigate allegations of "possible criminal wrongdoing by the intelligence and security service personnel" in Pakistan.

The JCHR committee's move comes as lawyers, acting for Binyam Mohamed, a former British resident held in Guantánamo Bay, ask the High Court to reopen its "gagging" judgment after accusing Miliband of giving a misleading account of why he wanted to suppress evidence of alleged torture.

The JCHR also expressed concern about the Mohamed case, saying that it "raises a number of issues about the alleged complicity of UK security service operatives in torture and mistreatment by overseas agencies".

Source: The Guardian

21 February 2009

The Daily Mail reported that David Miliband, his brother Ed and their mother Marion had been involved in some very complex legal manouverings with regard to property deals. It was suggested that the arrangements were very similar to those practised by individuals trying to avoid paying inheritance tax and involved the tranfer of ownership of three properties, the total value of which is estimated to be £2million ($4million).

When approached by the Daily Mail on 13 February David Miliband refused to discuss the matter.

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