Ed Miliband - the candidate of change?

In an interview on Liberal Conspiracy, Ed Miliband apparently claims to be "the candidate of change".

Let's look at the "change" he promises in the interview...

He: 

• repeats the manifesto commitment to fully mutualising Northern Rock
• repeats Harriet Harman's desire that 50% of the shadow cabinet be comprised of women
• refuses to commit to equalising marriage rights
• claims to want to learn the lessons of the Iraq war, apparently forgetting voting very strongly against an enquiry into what went wrong 

Doesn't seem too radical to me I'm afraid.

Also, as Diane Abbott pointed out about the other four contenders 

"They’re white, they’re male, they all went to Oxford or Cambridge, three of them did PPE, one did English, they were all SPADs under the New Labour government and they all used to play football together."

Now, if a white Oxbridge educated male ex-SpAd is the best candidate for the job then I have no problem with one being chosen (very magnanimous of me I know), but at the same time having 80% of candidates from that group is not quite as representative as Labour like to pretend to be. 

In fairness Ed Milibad does admit to making mistakes. It's just a shame that (like the other leadership contenders except Diane Abbott*) he only realised when they were voted out instead of doing anything about it while he was in government.

One good point - he has committed to campaign for a yes vote in the AV referendum so might able to work with others.  

* Of course, she had little enough chance of becoming leader before that cringe-inducing "This Week" interview.