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Ed milliband asserts authority, no really!

Ed Milliband, with his geeky aura and eyes reminiscent of woody the woodpecker, suggests comic gold-mine than potential prime minister today asserted control over the labour party forwarding plans allowing him to take more control over who he can appoint to shadow cabinet positions, currently elected by labour MPs.This smells of payback after labour MPs voted in the labour leadership election voted unanimously for his older, more prime-ministerial looking brother David 'why are you clapping?' Milliband. Milliband also plans to abolish the quota that stipulates at least six members of his shadow cabinet should be women while assuring he will keep to his leadership election promise to increase the appointment of women in his cabinet.

Milliband plans, at least in intention, are to put an end to labour politicians  worrying about their popularity within their own party and focus on holding the coalition government, with a covenant made of baby shite, to the fire.This also, more to the point, gives the labour leader  the power to mould the party in his political image without having deal with the all the same characters he would have to deal with that helped define the Blair/Brown era, of which he was also part of.

But this mostly allows him to pull  the trapdoor on anybody who challenges him without having to worry much about his popularity which save the unions, geeks , and cartoon lovers everywhere, should keep him up at night. Milliband's plans dont sound like such a bad idea considering  both Blair and Brown constantly having to deal with attempts, from their own party, to follow the plot-line of  Shakespeare's' Julius caesar every time their poll numbers went south. in sum, Ed milliband has not found his balls, that search continues, but the one of the keys to survival when labour leader, find ways to kill dissent, the bain of both Blair and Brown's spells as Prime Minister.      

trouble in limbo

Egypt, currently governed by a military rule by committee supplanted by point scoring opposing interest from parties who helped bring out the revolution and those who see their chance to seize power now that mr 'PHD in stubborness'(mubarak) has gone. wrangling between interests over the distribution of political power has been rightly argued among interest in the search for consensus, through such a task is difficult to achieve between those who believe in freedom and democracy those who believe in religious order and those with the guns to shut everybody up. however what's intruguinig is not the attempt to seize power by the various actors involved but the length group have gone to attenuate concerns over their plans for the Egypt's future. 

The muslim brotherhood new party 'freedom and justice' has limited it's ambitions in the upcoming election promising to run for 50 seats in parliament, and the non-fielding of a candidate for president amid concerns over their ideals and history of violence. what has become clear in the revolution is the actual passive nature of the judicial system of egypt with little in the way of a voice at a point in egypt troubled history is in need of it. this lack of voice has led to calls for the military to protect civil institution and rights which is like asking  the coyote not to chase the roadrunner after 40 days of lent. 

The egyptian military, by far the most powerful institution in the country, should not be in the business of forming of a new social contract entailing the distribution of political power as being the group with the guns they are the uninvited/invited guest to the party nobody can get rid of. all these factors contribute to the fact that the most unwanted job in egypt is not crowd control but the presidency as the president will have to contend with a country with an economy that was in the toilet is now somewhere in the nile and powerful political forces with little ground to encourage compromise. It is easy to imagine the president from day one as walking a tightrope, on the other side is survival, or at least as far as where his state stolen funds will take him when the going gets tough, the audience watch with suspense some calling for him to fall, some, reluctantly, encouraging balance, and the military simultaneously encouraging him across while having a pair of scissors in one hand and the other threatening to shake the the rope.