TV coverage of Miliband this week showed a young, smooth, tall, even handsome man with energy and charisma. There was little sign of humility or backtracking on the idea that he was preparing the ground for a tilt at the top job.

Yesterday he seemed reminiscent of Tony Blair at the peak of his powers, complete with the enormous cheesy grin.

But will the public warm to the former policy wonk who - despite shedding the previous Mr Logic image - is still best known as an intellectual?

I highly recommend a profile by my colleague Gideon Rachman where he interviewed the foreign secretary high in the skies above Afghanistan earlier this year.

Here is one extract…

“Amartya Sen is a brilliant man,” remarks Miliband. “I think his argument that there is a fusion tradition – a liberal tradition that is concerned with social justice – is right. And I admire his work on capabilities, and on freedom as capability.”

August 1, 2008 11:21am in Gordon Brown, Labour, UK politics | Comment