In a bizarre episode dubbed "the soap opera election," Britain's opposition Labour Party saw its leadership race turn brother against brother this weekend, as... well, two brothers literally ran against each other to succeed former prime minister Gordon Brown as head of the left-wing party.
The two bros in question, David and Edward Miliband, have, up to this point, lead roughly parallel lives of ambition and achievement. Both went to Oxford, both served as advisers to Tony Blair, both were elected to parliament in the early 2000s, and both served a stint as cabinet secretaries. Then both decided to run for leadership of the Labour Party, in the aftermath of the party's recent electoral defeat at the hands of David Cameron's Conservatives.
Edward Miliband eventually emerged as the victor, though the race was tight. One important way the brothers different was in their respective support bases; Dave was the more moderate, "establishment" candidate, favored by Blair and much of the parliamentary caucus, while Ed was the more leftish choice, backed by Britain's powerful unions. With Edward now victorious, some have speculated Labour will proceed to return to a more robust, social democratic identity, in contrast to the "New Labour" moderation that had been the famous halmark of the Blair era.
As could be predicted, the leadership race was not exactly the happiest time for the Miliband family, and the tabloids enjoyed reporting on just how poisonous Ed and Dave's relationship had turned near the end. But now that the dust has settled, things are, on the surface at least, all peachy keen again. One of Ed's first acts as leader was to appoint his brother as shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (or finance critic) — the second-most-important post in the party hierarchy. But still, as a
recent piece in the Telegraph discussed, poor Dave Miliband will have to play out the rest of his political career as second-fiddle to his younger brother, who completely upstaged him at what was supposed to be his big moment. Political feuds tend to be childishly bitter and petty at the best of times — just think of Obama and Hillary. And now try to imagine a universe in which Obama and Hillary were also siblings, and you'll have some idea of the state of the British opposition.
CKA Uber 
