Unity and Progress

Elaine Costigan's defection to Labour over Michael Gove certainly bears comparison with the sort of people who defect to the Conservative Party these days: Johanna Kaschke, the entire SWP faction of Respect in Tower Hamlets, numerous local factions of various Asian and other origins on frankly communal grounds, John Marek, Mohammad Asghar, Tony Blair.

But speaking of Blair, Gove is no longer really anyone worth worrying about. It looks as if even the humiliating enough figure of 32 David Miliband Memorial Schools (in its way, worse than none) was an overestimate. 20, apparently. Twenty. And after all the rushing through of the legislation, none until this time next year, at the earliest. No, there will not be momentum after that. This is the lot. Ever. If they don't do it this time, then they never will. So much for the only distinctive policy on which Cameron contested the last General Election.

And so much for its originator, David Miliband. Who should succeed him at next spring's South Shields byelection? How about the triumphant homecoming of that infinitely more serious figure, Cheryl Cole?