Ed Miliband with his partner Justine Thornton
If Ed Miliband can find the time to conceive a child – or two – then surely he can find the time to register his name on his first born son’s birth certificate. It might not have been a priority for him, but it’s a ritual, and one usually accomplished with pride and love by new dads. How is his son going to feel when he learns about this? He could feel devastated.

And if he blames politics for getting in the way of his marriage plans, what chance does he have of fitting it in now – with a second baby on the way, plus establishing himself as the new Labour leader and appointing a new Shadow Cabinet, which it seems increasingly unlikely will include his brother David.

I don’t understand why he blames his failure to get married on the Copenhagen climate change summit, followed by the general election and Labour leadership contest. The Copenhagen summit was a mitigated disaster. And there is no reason why he couldn’t have married before these major events happened; his son Daniel is now 15 months.

I always believe you find time to do something you want to do. This is true particularly of busy people.

Btw, David Miliband is a very busy man too and he found time to accompany his young son to the playground during his first week at school recently, according to Anne McElvoy in yesterday’s Evening Standard. David Cameron is a devoted father who spent many hours, including overnight stays, with his sick son Ivan at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and Nick Clegg takes a great pride in his paternal duties. Even Gordon Brown left 10 Downing Street holding on to his young son’s hand. Who can forget those moving words he spoke when resigning as Prime Minister, and saying he was leaving “the second most important job I could ever hold’ after that of being a husband and father, which he would now ‘cherish even more”.

Unless Ed can learn to cherish his family life too, then he is the real loser. It’s not impressive to say he has no time to sign his son’s birth certificate or get married, it smacks of lack of commitment. While politics is incredibly time consuming, at the end of the day it is Ed’s close knit family that will provide that much needed refuge and distraction when the weight on his shoulders become unbearable, when he wants to firmly close the door on the outside world.

I suggest he should reconsider his priorities.