UK's Labour Party elects Ed Miliband - time for real change?

Ed Miliband has been announced as the new leader of the UK's Labour Party, narrowly beating his older brother David to succeed Gordon Brown who had stepped down following Labour's defeat in May. Five Members of Parliament had stood for the role, four of whom had been ministers in the previous Labour administration. Ed Miliband's  election has caused controversy regarding the role of Trade Unions and the voting system used, as well as raising questions on just how much hecan seriously claim to represent a true change for his party.

David Miliband had all but been anointed for the leadership of the Labour party with proclaimed support from leading Blairites including Lord Mandelson and had actually succeeding in gaining a majority of the votes from Labour MPs and MEPs. However, with Union support and second preference votes shifted the balance slightly into Ed's favour (who has been referred to as "Red Ed" due to supposed more left-wing leanings and Marxist connections in the British Media). David Miliband had long been seen as the more statesman like of the brothers (despite a hilarious and ill-advised photo op involving a banana) and long thought a shoe-in to the leadership.

Ed Miliband is certainly no stranger to high-level Labour politics with close connections to Gordon Brown and the government that lost the last election, including the role of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. He also wrote the 2010 Labour Election manifesto that some claimed lost them that election and so appears to be a very strange choice for the leadership role. He has further more claimed that it is the end of "New Labour", particularly the old Blair-Brown rivalry, but does that mean that he will be returning to the pre-Kinnock version of Labour rejecting Mandelson's vote-winning formula?

The Coalition Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government will undoubtedly play upon Ed Miliband's Union ties, particularly if the trade unions go ahead with their threats of mass civil disobedience following next month's Comprehensive Spending Review. The Coalition also has some upcoming internal divisions over proposals to change the general election voting system from First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) to Alernative Voting (AV), with the Lib Dems supporting it and the Tories disagreeing - Ed Miliband's election despite being the second choice candidate for most voters has undeniably weakened support for AV.

In my opinion, by electing Ed Miliband Labour has opened itself to some easy attacks by the government and does not really offer someone who can be something new for the party. Time will tell how strong a leader of the opposition Ed Miliband will prove to be, let alone a potential future Prime Minister, though the seeds of his political downfall may already have been planted.