Ed Miliband was in his element, spending our money. Energy Secretary Miliband had come to the Commons to announce a £14.2billion binge on nuclear energy. How skittish and giddy he was. The Red Rum teeth were brandished. All his goofiest limb-waving gesticulations were seen.
He was full of beans, his pleasure possibly accentuated by the fact that the Cabinet minister rumoured to have come a cropper in the spending review is Yvette Cooper, wife of his former shadow chancellor Ed Balls.
Miliband and Balls once competed for Gordon Brown's favours. Later they had a fruitless spell running the opposition. That partnership ended badly.
Now Mr Miliband is back in footlights. 'I don't want to steal the Chancellor of the Exchequer's thunder,' he insisted. Don't believe it.
He was relishing this opportunity to announce so much spending. It is a measure of Rachel Reeves's decline that Mr Miliband, not she, was entrusted with this splurge.
