Return of the Gord

Oh look, the Old Crowd are moving in on the New Generation’s patch. Not only has David Miliband broken his post-defeat silence with an engaging little article in the Mail on Sunday, but we also have news that Gordon Brown is to make his first Commons speech since the general election. That’s right, after 174 paid days of, erm, indiscernible activity, Gordon will tomorrow insist that maintenance on Britain’s two new aircraft carriers should be carried out on a Scottish shipyard, rather than in France. Everyone else is surprised that he didn’t get that written into the contracts already.

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Mark Galeotti

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The return of the Gord throws up some questions for Ed Miliband. It’s not just the speech tomorrow, but rather the release of our former Prime Minister’s book on 7 December. How will Labour respond to it? Will they agree with its prescriptions for the post-crash world? Will they step pointedly back from Brownonomics? Or will they simply just ignore it? In terms of how Labour sees itself – and wants to project itself – it could be a very telling moment, just as when Tony Blair’s book was greeted with more