I know it is fashionable - perhaps even easy - to dislike Ed Miliband as a person. But people need to step outside of their personal dislikes and even political disagreements with him to get off the bandwagon and recognise what it is that he has actually done by saying it.
He has openly said that he would rather forgo a chance at governing if the price of it was a deal with the SNP. It is just not possible to go back on a statement like this. If he did, a backbench rebellion would be all but guaranteed and there's an extremely high chance he'd be VONC'd before he'd even started. It is also a loud and clear signal to the Scottish nationalists, and to his own party, that Labour won't work with them.
Can you think of another time in recent memory a politician has made a promise like that?
I'm not Labour fangirl, but Miliband has been more open and, frankly, principled about this than any other party leader. By ruling it out he has sacrificed an awful lot for his party. He has not strengthened his position - in fact there is a very high chance he has all but guaranteed another Tory government - and he has done it on principal.
Whatever I disagree with him on, I admire him for doing it. It took courage. It took a lot more guts than, say, Cameron has shown.