Media reactios to David Miliband’s resignation – Media and blog round-up, March 27th

David Miliband’s resignation – reactions

“David understood that he was trapped. So long as he was an MP, he was constrained. Even when he took on wholly unrelated issues – most recently, the future of the oceans and overfishing – newspaper reporters would ask him about his brother. Some said the solution was to return to the frontline, to take a shadow cabinet post under his brother. “That would have been even worse, soap opera plus,” one confidant of the former foreign secretary told me last night. Others suggested the only job big enough would have been shadow chancellor – and there was no vacancy.” – Jonathan Freedland, Guardian

“If David M cannot be leader, he should be shadow chancellor, but it is a measure of Labour’s problem that he won’t be. The other part of his calculation (I guess) is that he wouldn’t ever be leader either. If anything happens to Ed M before the election, Yvette Cooper would win the leadership contest. And it looks quite possible that Ed M might be prime minister after the election. Even if Labour lost, David M’s chances in the subsequent leadership contest would not be great. However, it is not as if the party is so overloaded with talent that it can regard his departure with anything but a sense of foreboding.” – John Rentoul, Independent

“Whatever happens, it has been clear for some time that the next act in the Labour drama was being written without a starring role for David Miliband and he knew it. Since he had no lines in the script, no rousing soliloquies to deliver, he has sensibly chosen to leave the stage.” – Rafael Behr, New Statesman

Other highlights

• How productive are non-English MPs? – Guardian
• No more cat tweets, please – Jane Merrick, Independent

• Our NHS is in intensive care, and Labour’s treatment has to be bold – Mary Riddell, Telegraph