Maurice Dancing |

Thursday 5th January 2012 | 14:49

Maurice Dancing

One person who may be a tad relieved by the row over Diane Abbott's Tweets today is Lord Glasman.

Thanks to the Abbott* firestorm, the 'Blue Labour' peer has largely escaped the 'Day 2' stories about his New Statesman critique that 'there seems to be no strategy, no narrative and little energy' from Ed Miliband.

Miliband has not had to comment, at least so far (this may change if he does a Today prog interview soon), on Glasman's remarks.

Glasman clearly thinks he was trying to be helpful, but in his inimitable way he's gifted a PR victory to the Tories. Fans of Ed Balls may be even less happy than Ed M at the digs at the Shadow Chancellor's endogenous growth theory and other barbs.

Yet the main reason Glasman is getting any traction at all is because he is 'Ed Miliband's guru' or 'Ed Miliband's adviser'.

What's strange is that the Labour party has allowed these tags to be used without any robust hitback. I understand that Glasman has met Miliband just three times in the last 18 months. Hardly an 'adviser', let alone a 'guru'.

It seems Glasman was allowed off the leash to punt Blue Labour, largely because Ed M wanted a healthy debate about Labour's future. I suspect rather than trying to muzzle him, the leadership would just wish he didn't get any attention. To date, they've indulged him like an eccentric uncle, but the joke is wearing thin.

Of course, the other reason Glasman is getting traction is that his critique is shared by others in the party who slap their foreheads at Ed's latest poll drop or gaffe or mis-step at PMQs.

I wonder which Glasman would rather be: a proxy for critics of the man he says he 'backs' - or a disowned 'adviser'?

Or as the legendary Loudon Wainwright once put it, is it better to be a 'has-been' than just a 'never-was'?

*FOOTNOTE: In a delicious irony, it was Abbott who was last night Tweeting abuse at Glasman. She said "Maurice Glasman supposedly a father figure to Ed Milli. If I had a father like that I'd lock him up".

If anyone missed it, this footage of Andrew Neil tackling Abbott on her remarks about West Indian mothers in 2010 is a bit painful.

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