Man of Steel
Every so often I read something that is so monumentally stupid that it takes my breath away - the latest example being a 'puff piece' in The Guardian, an interview which is presumably to help with Ed Miliband's 'image problem'.
So here is an extract from the article which tries to portray the Labour leader as a Man of Steel - in an unflattering comparison with his rival Lib Dem leader - Nick Clegg - who is clearly cast in the role of the wimpish and mild-mannered Clark Kent.
Ed Miliband, the Labour party leader.
Ed Miliband is sometimes accused of being indecisive but, on one issue that has been a national talking point this week, he is clear and resolute: "Our duty is to intervene."
Not Syria. We're talking about Nigella Lawson, and what Miliband would have done if he had been there when Charles Saatchi grabbed her by the throat. On Thursday Nick Clegg came a cropper on his LBC Call Clegg show when, asked if he would have got involved if he had seen the assault, he said he could not be sure and it might have been just a "fleeting thing".
In an interview in his Commons office, Miliband said that he would have stepped in.
"I thought they were horrifying pictures," he said. "Honestly, if you are passing by something like that happening – our duty is to intervene. If I had been in that situation, passing by in those circumstances, the right thing to do is to go up to somebody involved in that and say 'What's going on?'"
Sadly, perhaps, we will never find out what would have happened if Miliband had leapt in to defend the celebrity chef. But the Labour leader does have to live with the consequences of another decisive act – his call for a cap on welfare spending and his announcement that he will accept the government's spending plans as a starting point for 2015.
I suppose it made me laugh, but it is ridiculous - the depths to which politicians will sink in an effort to portray themselves in a favourable light - a bit like discovering a particular taste in rock music to come across as youthful and 'cool'.
Next thing you know - Ed will start wearing his underpants on the outside of his trousers.
