by Asa Bennett

After the Totnes Conservative Open Primary's resounding success with the approval of Dr Sarah Wollaston as the Conservative Candidate, many people have been duly acclaiming the success and praising this process for its democratic fairness and ability to involve the general public.

But today, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has endorsed open primaries and called for their further use in an article for Tribune with an abridged version appearing in the Guardian.

It should be clarified that this post's title is not a criticism of Open Primaries themselves but of the fact that David Miliband suddenly calls for this American political concept to be implemented and heralds it almost as revolutionary for British politics, yet he has not only never spoken about this before but actually has expressed disdain for American political ideas, such as when he sneered at David Cameron for looking "to Texas and not Islington, for inspiration" about policy. Additionally, in the Tribune article, we see Miliband trying to use some 'Obama stardust' as he hails the American President for his inclusive, cutting-edge approach to political campaigning.

So it seems Miliband, with this new call, is trying to rebuild his political gravitas and reputation by populist pandering, all the while expressly complimenting Gordon Brown for 'rightly speaking' on this issue in order to prevent speculation that his article may be another putative leadership bid.