No, really, he won't stand against Gordon. And that's his final word on the subject. David Miliband's declaration in yesterday's Observer was unambiguous. We will all just have to get used to the inevitability of a Brown premiership, concludes the FT. But the Telegraph is still goading other Blairites to stand. "Why does no one come forward?"
"When Harold Wilson resigned in 1976, six first-rank politicians contested the premiership. Is Labour really so reduced in talent?" Look what happened when Anthony Eden was elected unopposed as Conservative leader, the Telegraph adds. He managed just 20 months in office.
Calm down, says Tim Hames in the Times. "There is no logic in creating a leadership race for the sake of it. This is meant to be heavyweight politics, after all, not a rip-off of Pop Idol." In any case, he says, Mr Miliband needs to beef up his ideas and rework his jargon if he ever wants to be PM. The young ex-pretender is the Shredded Wheat to Mr Brown's porridge. "His testimony [in the Observer] referred to the need to devise a 'New Labour Plus', which sounds faintly like a Viagra by-product."
Mr Miliband, however, will be more interested in page two of the FT, which tips him as foreign secretary in a Brown cabinet. And the chancellor's job? It could be Gordon's long-time favourite, Ed Balls. Or Jack Straw. Or Alastair Darling. And "it could be the first British cabinet to contain a husband and wife (Mr Balls and Yvette Cooper]; two brothers (the Milibands); and maybe three Scots in the top four jobs." Cabinet splits could be about to become even more exciting.
* This is an expanded extract from the Wrap, Guardian Unlimited's emailed digest of the daily papers. Sample it free.
