A modern day Cain and Abel?

With Ed's election to the Labour leadership on Saturday and then his speech to the Party Conference yesterday, the Miliband brothers have been in the media spotlight for many days. And much of the coverage has been focussed on the divisions between the two of them, with some commentators describing this as a modern day Cain and Abel story.

It saddens and angers me that such a large proportion of the media aren't happy unless they have a soap opera style story of deceit and division to report. Ed Miliband spoke for an hour yesterday, praising much that Labour achieved over the last 13 years, but also admitting some errors. He encouraged people to move on from the old arguments and factions and urged the party to be a new generation of optimists - optimistic about what can be achieved for our country and our world. He spoke with passion about the state the country could be left in if the Tories are allowed to bring in all their cuts. And yet all the media wanted to report was the couple of sentences where he said that, with hindsight, the war in Iraq was wrong. He didn't blame any of the people who voted for it, but he pointed out what a lot of people have being saying since 2003. Yet, because David voted for the war and didn't applaud this sentence when many others did, the media have leapt on this as the start of a war between the brothers. They chose to ignore the many times that David applauded what Ed was saying, to focus on the time he didn't.

This speaks volumes for the state of our country when people are more concerned with possible battles, highlighting differences and creating barriers rather than listening to what people have to say and the ideas that they put forward. Much of the media isn't happy unless it is doing someone down. And they won't rest until they have divided David and Ed.

This isn't another Cain and Abel story. These are two very talented people who both have clear visions for the direction of our country. They are both passionate about creating a more equal society. They happen to be brothers, and they happen to have differences of opinions on certain subjects - but then who does agree 100% with their siblings? Surely, for the good of this country we need to encourage both of these people to be involved in building a better country and not trying to tear them apart.