In the movie “Blazing Saddles” the black sheriff played by Cleavon Little outwits the disappointed and hostile townsfolk by pointing a gun to his own head and threatening to kill the sheriff before making his getaway.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband appears to have performed a perverse corollary of this in an exchange which caused many people to question just how much self-awareness there really is in New Labour’s inner circle. Or, for that matter, just how often they really do get out into the real world to meet “real people”.
In a Guardian interview Miliband tried hard to give the impression that people should just move on from Iraq and get over it.
He told his interviewer, without the slightest hint of embarrassment: “I met some guy in Soho yesterday, when we were launching the Labour lesbian and gay manifesto. And I said to him, ‘Look, you’ve punished us enough about Iraq, all right? So don’t start punishing yourself.’
“Some people feel very, very strongly about it, and I respect that. There are people who resigned from the government because of Iraq. But what on earth is the point of punishing yourself or punishing the country for Iraq given that the alternative government, the Tories, also voted for it?”
Within 24 hours it was reported that one of Mr Miliband’s last official acts before the election was to approve an £80,000 bill to change the size of the typeface of the FCO’s logo.
