By coincidence shortly before hearing that Red Ed was the new Labour leader I was reading about him in Chris Mullin's diaries Decline and Fall.
This is the entry for January 27 2009:
Members Lobby
As I was leaving thus evening Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Climate Change, bent my ear about tomorrow's vote on a third runway for Heathrow. 'The author of A Very British Coup wouldn't vote with the Tories would he?' I explained to young Ed, who despite his present eminence hasn't been with us all that long, that there is not a Tory lobby and a Labour one, but an Aye and a Noe lobby - and yes I would be voting for the Tory amendment since it reflected my views. He then attempted, ina tone that suggested exasperation, to persuade me that the expansion was conditional on the toughest emission constraints in the world and they would be legally binding. To which I protested that the airlines would find a way round whatever constraints he saw fit to impose, as they had with all previous restrictions. Whereupon he walked off, shaking his head in disbelief at my naivety.
