Congrats to Ed - here's to fair votes and the triumph of youth

‘A horse is a horse of course of course .. ‘ yes, here comes Mr Ed.

Congratulations to Ed Miliband on being elected as the new leader of the Labour party – and use Google if you don’t get that last reference – I am sure you’ll be hearing it again.

Two things come to mind with Mr M junior’s success.

Firstly, had the Labour party used the first-past-the-post system then it would be David Miliband who would be celebrating tonight. Using the Alternative Vote method has ensured that the winner has a majority of the votes unlike over two thirds of the Members of Parliament. I hope that Ed Miliband now joins the referendum campaign so the rest of us can work towards fairer votes as well.

The second important point is that, for the first time, a leader of a major UK political party is younger than me. Ed Miliband is 40 years old, whereas I am 42. Not only that, but Nick Clegg is only nine months older than me. And David Cameron only three months older than Nick.

At the next election in May 2015, Cameron and Clegg will both be 48 while Ed will be 45. However the ‘youngest’ general election was in 2001 when Tony Blair (48) took on William Hague (40) and Charles Kennedy (41).

If, as they say, policemen look younger every year, what’s the expression when all the political leaders are?