As you’ll no doubt have registered by now, David Miliband appeared to make a huge ‘blunder’ whilst appearing on Question Time this week by claiming that when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, people would be aching for Blair to return:

[flashvideo ratio=”16:9″ filename=”http://sjhoward.co.uk/video/qt.flv” title=”Question Time (BBC One)” /]

Perhaps I’m too generous, but I can’t bring myself to believe that even David Miliband could be so incredibly stupid as to say this if he didn’t mean it. But why say it?

Is he such a loyal Blairite that can’t see any other way forward? Does he want to leave politics, and stick by Blair when he resigns? Surely not. He’s the very definition of a career politician, with a proclivity for power-seeking. And, perhaps, this is what makes this move so odd – he’s distancing himself from the incoming power.

Does he actually believe that James won’t take over from Anthony, and so is continuing to align himself with the Blairites over the Brownites in an attempt to cling onto his own power?

Is he purposely distancing himself from Brown, so that he might take over as Party Leader once Brown is ‘removed’, as he almost certainly will end up being, as an unsuccessful Leader. Does he think that the Party will yearn for the Blairite glory days, and he’ll be able to ride in on a white horse as the newly shining knight of Blair’s order, and steal the Party crown?

None of these options make perfect sense. That means one of two things: He’s a great political mind who has everything plotted out, but no-one can work out quite where he’s going. Or he’s a terrible political mind, who can’t think his way through a simple question on a TV show. I have my suspicions, but I’m not yet sure which.