Miliband grows up

David Miliband has a piece in the Guardian today, in which he argues, according to Patrick Wintour, that Labour needs a "more mature relationship with the electorate". These words don't actually appear in Miliband's piece but they do encapsulate what he says here:

When people hear exaggerated claims, either about failure or success, they switch off. That is why politicians across all parties fail to connect. To get our message across, we must be more humble about our shortcomings but more compelling about our achievements.

There's no doubt that Wintour would like Miliband to take over:

Miliband cannot afford to be seen to be involved in any manoeuvring against Brown, but his willingness to write confidently about Labour's mistakes, and how he believes David Cameron, the Conservative leader, can be defeated, will be seen as a reminder to a demoralised party that there are figures in the cabinet capable of making a compelling analysis of Labour's political challenges.

The Times says Miliband is positioning himself for the leadership:

The Foreign Secretary fires the first salvo in a deliberate challenge to Mr Brown in a newspaper article that outlines a blueprint for defeating David Cameron without mentioning the Prime Minister once by name.

The Times somehow can't bring itself to mention the Guardian by name.