THAT David Miliband should retire hurt, from national politics is hardly surprising. If this had been the case of a younger brother losing out to an elder, the relationship might have been repaired, but not the other way around.

Truth is, however, he’s no great loss to the national stage and certainly not at all to those he was elected to represent. At Westminster he lost much credibility when he signalled a challenge to Gordon Brown but failed to follow through.

As far as his constituents are concerned he’s turned out to be yet another poshly educated machine politician, parachuted into parliament with little idea, and I suspect interest, in the lives of those he represented.

The indiscriminate accumulation of income since his leadership defeat rather gives the lie to his real motivation for entering politics, and in this respect he emulates the driving force of his mentor, Tony Blair.

If he really cared for his fellow citizens there were plenty of genuine UK based charities that he could have joined, food and clothing banks, helping the homeless for instance, all likely to be kept busy by the ill conceived policies of the Coalition government.

VJ Connor, Bishop Auckland.