The Labour leadership contest is the first to involve two brothers. It is also the first to involve two contenders called Ed. Indeed, it is the first to feature even one Ed, a name which has crept up on politics over the last decade and now seems to have ousted Ted and Teddy. In earlier, starchier days, few politicians' names were short-formed for public consumption. Clement Attlee might often be referred to as Clem, and Churchill sometimes as Winnie, but these were not the names they preferred. One perhaps surprising exception was Douglas-Home, officially Alexander but, in the Scots manner, always Alec. A more informal style of politics and the needs of headline writers made James Callaghan into Jim and Margaret Thatcher Maggie – but never formally. Anthony Blair, however, was Tony from the beginning. Past abbreviated Edwards were usually Teds, occasionally Teddys and Eddies. The name Ted fitted Edward Heath very comfortably: Ed Heath would have sounded disturbingly alien. The Labour deputy leader Edward Short was Ted; the combative Tory backbencher Edward Taylor was Teddy. Neither was even remotely an Ed. Perhaps this new process of Edification as practised by Miliband Jr, Balls, and the coalition ministers Vaizey and Davey, reflects a desire to sound modern and even abrasive and not at all like a children's toy. Those who still find "Ed" odd will soon get used to it. "Custom reconciles us to everything", as that great Conservative thinker, Ed Burke, once observed.