Why partisan columnists (like me) are doomed

An email exchange with a Conservative-leaning friend this week left me feeling sheepish. But if shameful my behaviour be, I’m not alone in the shame. I thought it worth sharing the conversation.

We were corresponding about Ed Miliband’s stand-off with the Unite trade union. In a message to my friend, I remarked: ‘It’s reaching the point where (paradoxically) EM’s tendency to take the line of least resistance may actually push him into confronting Unite.’ And that’s true: worms turn and it’s not always good politics to corner people. But it is the next part of the message that I’m hard-put to defend. If Miliband wimps out, I said, then ‘I remain vaguely worried that Labour may ditch Ed before the election and replace him with the more formidable Alistair Darling’.

‘Worried’? What’s going on here? If I believe the former chancellor would be good for the Labour party (and I do) and quite possibly a decent prime minister too (and I do) then shouldn’t I want him to have a chance to prove it? My friend was quick to pull me up.