"Well, he is not Iain Duncan Smith," was one response from a Labour MP last week when asked to give an end-of-year assessment of Ed Miliband's leadership. "He is not hopeless," was another.
Both verdicts are commonly handed down these days at Westminster, where the dreaded "Ed" question draws blank expressions and long silences. Labour backbenchers thrash around for reasons to be cheerful – and often struggle to find them.
To have your leadership compared favourably with that of IDS, the self-styled "quiet man" who was embarrassingly out of his depth before being dumped by the Tories in 2003, is about as limp a compliment as it is possible to get in politics. A collective gloom has descended on many sections of the Labour movement and Miliband is the obvious target.
The leader's office, which has just poached Tim Livesey, the Archbishop of Canterbury's senior adviser, as chief of staff, insists the party is holding together and that oppositions at this stage of the electoral cycle always struggle. But for ambitious Labour MPs that does little to lift spirits. "We are united – united in our listlessness," remarked a senior Labour figure, frustrated that, after almost a year and a half of Ed, little is stirring in the realms of ideas and strategy.
The Christmas period has heaped still more depression on Labour and more pressure on Ed. Pictures of him and his wife Justine in the Daily Mirror, playing next to the family Christmas tree with their two little boys, were pleasant enough. Yet it has been Cameron – the public spending axeman, the PM who is heaping austerity on the nation yet failing to meet the deficit reduction targets which the cuts were supposed to deliver – who is basking in media adulation and public approval. "Faith in Cameron grows as Miliband fails to impress," said the Guardian's front page headline on Monday.
Gallingly for Labour, the Tories have been back in front in opinion polls, seemingly buoyed by Cameron's politically macho, if diplomatically dangerous, European summit veto before Christmas. Labour people despair that somehow, infuriatingly, he is using the economic crisis to his own benefit, to exhibit strength in adversity. "If we can't be ahead now, then when will we ever be?" they ask.
In Labour ranks there is anxiety at the level of media hostility towards Miliband and a fear that the impression he is no good will become embedded so deeply into public consciousness that it will be impossible to erase. Before Christmas, Labour chiefs fired off a strong letter to the BBC complaining that the party's politicians are being frozen out of TV and radio political coverage. The BBC, they fear, is becoming an "echo chamber" for a predominantly pro-Cameron press. Thus far, Labour sniping at the leader has been confined to private briefings. Some MPs say Miliband has failed to confront adequately the reasons for Labour's loss in May 2010. Others complain that he does not have the mental agility or quick wit to deliver enough blows against Cameron at prime minister's questions. Many worry that people see him as a wonk and have made up their minds that he will not be prime minister. They want him rebranded, but when asked how lack ideas. "He needs images that say something, anything that will define him as a real person," remarked a member of the 2010 intake.
A major difficulty for Miliband is that he is trying to map out a policy framework in a party still divided between a Blairite right and a centre-left seeking a permanent departure from New Labour. The Blairites resist anything that might be seen as challenging business or wealth creation, while the left wants evidence that Miliband really means to make the rich pay more. Neal Lawson, chair of the centre-left pressure group Compass, says: "In his conference speech Ed talked about reining in predatory capitalism. But now he and his shadow chancellor are against a financial transaction tax levied on the banks at a European level. The lessons of New Labour haven't been learned."
Yet amid all the gloom and doubt exist pockets of light and hope. In the crowd of pessimists stand wise, optimistic old heads and young enthusiasts who refuse to despair.
Many Labour MPs point to the difference between their party's current polling position and the far worse plight of the Tories during their darkest days in opposition after 1997. When Labour MPs and strategists look at the figures, they find reason to think that things may not be that bad after all.
A year and a half after the Tories' 1997 election defeat, the party, then under William Hague, was on 27% of the vote, almost 30 points behind Labour. The most recent Mori poll has Labour (the party blamed by many for the economic mess the country is in), the same period on from its last election loss, on 39% with its vote up around 10 points since polling day. Labour has won five consecutive byelections and claims a substantial increase in its membership.
In a leaked memo, David Cowling, the BBC's leading political researcher, says Labour has bounced back far faster than after previous election disasters. "While it took Labour 36 months after the 1983 general election to reach a monthly average of 40% in the polls, it took them only nine months to reach the same monthly average after the 2010 election." Economic crisis or no, things could be, and have been, far worse.
Enthusiastic voices cry out from the fog of disillusion. Luciana Berger, the young MP for Liverpool Wavertree since 2010, says she "can't believe" the current Westminster and media hostility to Labour. "In my constituency and in my local party there is huge enthusiasm for what Ed is doing. I just can't believe why some people are so negative."
Like the Tories in 2002 and 2003, when Duncan Smith was written off, Labour is indeed struggling to get noticed. But unlike the Conservatives at that time, the party at large has not completely given up on this leader. Ed has had successes, such as over phone hacking, and can have good days at PMQs. He has not made a defining PR blunder, as Hague did with his baseball cap. He is just inconsistent. The former lord chancellor Charlie Falconer, who voted for Ed's brother David in the 2010 leadership contest, believes Ed is doing "very well" overall in a very tough role.
Miliband's supporters also point to the fact that Cameron's personal ratings were worse during his first full calendar year as party leader (2006) than Miliband's in his first full year (2011). Figures from the pollsters Mori show that Cameron's approval ratings ranged between 25% and 33% in 2006, while Miliband's in 2011 have been between 31% and 37%.
Labour says it will develop the party's "cost of living" campaign in the new year, focusing on the need to relieve pressure on the "squeezed middle", and fostering ideas of responsibility both at the top and the bottom of society. They promise a blitz of activity and interventions.
Even Miliband's critics say there is no serious short-term threat to his leadership. The party is giving him more time and anyway cannot unite around an alternative. But everyone knows the next few months could decide this leader's fate. A bloodthirsty media will demand progress.
On the Tory side, there is widespread quiet satisfaction that Miliband is the Labour leader. Tim Montgomerie, editor of the ConservativeHome website, casts doubt on the notion that Ed can pull things round as Cameron did. He thinks Ed's problem is that he is just too "odd". "In 2007 Cameron only needed a course correction, he didn't need a personality transplant," Montgomerie says.
"Miliband's problems are deeper. He can deal with his 'Red Ed' problem in 2012 by moving to a sensible policy on deficit reduction. His 'Odd Ed' problem is probably impossible to fix. Voters simply think he's weird. They can't close their eyes and imagine him on the steps of Number 10," he adds.
Miliband's challenge in 2012 is to prevent that perception from spreading, particularly within his own party.
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31 December 2011 05:39PM
The Labour leadership's not just stuck between its Blairites and its Bennites. It also suffers from being associated with both of the causes of the present problems: light-touch financial regulation and excessive public spending.
An even bigger challenge is choosing a policy which isn't only credible but which works too. Labour relies on its voters in the public services (including the leftish middle classes in medicine and education), so it can't be seen as cutting state-spending, arguably not by even a penny. However, even Mr Balls knows that the party's over for big debt and spending.
Labour must somehow reassure business, yet threats of more regulation will only cow it. The party must also (like the LibDems) burnish its euro-credentials, however much of a dead duck the EU becomes. I suppose all Mr Miliband can do is vaguely say that the government is getting it wrong (without offering an alternative) and hope that things go so badly that power (maybe shared with the LibDems) will fall into his lap.
31 December 2011 05:48PM
I would like a Prime minister as competent as Hu Jintao or Angela Merkel not as charismatic as Jonathan Ross or Jeremy Clarkson.
31 December 2011 05:49PM
Yet another attack Miliband article with free "expert" advice.
Boring.
31 December 2011 05:57PM
Labour has never shown fiscal prudence in hundred years. Their voters do not care about it or about the economic order and the discipline it requires. So reassurance is not the good word.
31 December 2011 06:00PM
Labour blew it.
Clause 4 anyone?
Neo-Conservative=Neo-Liberal=Neo-Labour
I will never vote Labour again for the same reasons I have never voted Conservative or Liberal.
31 December 2011 06:06PM
The media has been quite instrumental in the greater mudslinging at Ed Miliband. He's the most decent chap of the lot if you ask me. So much the politics of image and charisma did for this country.
Ed needs to make a clean break from the New Labour days and assert an identity which can connect with the masses. Reaffirming that Labour is the party for the many, not the few. Him and Ed Balls (as much as I don't like him) need to expose the con the Tories are pulling...that the BANKS were responsible for the deficit and that the public sector is being used as a convenient scapegoat to protect Cameron and Osborne's banking mates. The public are asking for that. Also, fight to opposse NHS reforms, no place for complacency and watering down policy. In addition, he could show that the government doesn't give a crap about private sector workers on low and mid range salaries. The ONLY people who ultimately benefit from Tory policy are the upper echelons of society.
David Cameron's favourable approval right now is ephemeral in nature. Sooner or later, he'll piss off the Eurosceptics when Merkozy treat him like a wrinkled pool toy in 2012. If UKIP manages to convince enough Conservative voters to back them, it'll benefit Labour. Dave models himself on that vile Tony Blair, his mask will slip too.
31 December 2011 06:10PM
The Labour MP is completely wrong. Miliband is every inch an Ian Duncan Smith:
Boring, worthy, timid, completely uncharismatic, bad at TV, controlled by party apparatchiks and worn down by the pressure of his role. And so he is no good at it.
As with IDS, he is merely keeping the seat warm for the next decent Labour leader, perhaps sometime around 2020?
And, as with IDS, he was picked by a dominant but completely misguided section of his own party - who simply picked the wrong man for the job (Labour should have picked David and the Tories should have picked Clarke).
Miliband is in a rut he can't escape from, hemmed in by the baggage left by Gordon Brown with Mr Balls on the left of him and Mrs Balls on the right - both inescapably tarnished by having totally sleepwalked into the disasters of Labour's declining years, buoyed up by the hubris of being too long in power.
31 December 2011 06:11PM
All what the party says may be true but it is unfair to dump it all on Mr Ed Milliband. He has too many rocks weighing him down and not all of it are his fault. The Labour party has burdened him very many times.
First and foremost the TB_GB shenanigans and the witless complacency and connivance of the party with the longest and most dysfunctional governance of the country. The subservient party and their MPs went so long and told so many lies to the disbelieving country. Those you failed to speak the truth for so long are still in the parliament and many are in the shadow front bench.
Then the party chose to elect a leader who was not the main pick of the Labour in parliament. He chose as his chancellor the ED2 who has the dubious distinction of being the only active politician who was criticised by the panel which investigated the failure of RBS.
The result is that the two key attack dogs of Mr Brown are at the helm despite the thumping verdict of the electorate. The party is trapped by the pernicious hold of Ed2 on its economic policy. I recall a poster the other day saing that anytime the old cabinet minister speaks in support of the party he/she was reminded of the last Labour government.
My main criticism of Ed Milliband has always been his failure to evolve from the student politics of Oxford University. He has a tendency to focus on a point rather than the entire picture. He needs a very much more rounded "entire picture approach.
In the end, irrespective of which brother leads the party or they replace a Miliband with either spouce, they have as a party not shone any penance, not forgotten the tendency to spin and make it as they go and have over borrowed from the good will of the electorate. They are not showing their intention, not to mention ability to cut down the overdraft.
Add to all these are the out put from the Labour house journals that claim to be news papers. They have forgotten their primary role is to draw the first draft of the history and instead they resort to political posturing.
We are therefore left with a party who are so fond of running on the tick,both financially and politically. Until they are willing to cut both overdraft they are doomed to fail.
There is a formidable obstacle to over come none of the present contenders are able to deliver.
31 December 2011 06:12PM
No, we've Yvette Cooper to look forward to.
Labour isn't going to get anywhere until it has a clear out of personnel and ideas.
Pretending to be the Tories but with a more attractive Pantone colour is not really an election winning formula.
31 December 2011 06:13PM
I doubt if he will find some with blairs filthy lefties still in his cabinet,plus hes should own up to what a disaster crony blair was and get rid of balls and bring in some new faces who are not millionaires,but i wont forget labour in a hurry a year or two years is a long time in politics,but i wont forget.
31 December 2011 06:20PM
Labour claim to be Keynsian but in power they broke one of his key rules by running a deficit during the unsustainable boom based on inflated house prices. Its truly described as 'not fixing the roof while the sun shone!' Both EDs stand in the dock charged criminal sloppiness which we are now all paying for with an even larger deficit that was bequethed to the Coalition. If either Ed wants to have any credibility at all with the electorate he needs to apologise to us all and tell us what cuts Labour would make as he has yet to identify a penny piece of economies that Labour would make if in power now. Get to it Ed!
31 December 2011 06:21PM
Labour have been in the lead in the polls most of the year - in some up to 9 points ahead a month or two ago.
Even at the moment, with Cameron's Euro boost, the poll of polls shows Labour only 6 seats short of a majority.
Miliband may not be setting the world on fire, but the Labour party have been polling % that the Lib Dems can only dream about these days.
Yet reading the onslaught against Miliband, by all the media, particularly the Guardian who really should be too embarrassed to do so after their Liberal Moment embarrassment, a Martian would think Labour were polling what the Lib Dems are, and Miliband's approval ratings were as appallingly low as Clegg's minus 55 from YouGov last week.
The Tories were polling as low as 34% this year in the daily YouGov poll.
Where were all the stories lamenting Cameron's poor leadership then ?
You'd almost think the Guardian wants another Tory government if it means the sad little Lib Dems can keep their ministerial cars and whinge on about speeding cameras for another five years.
31 December 2011 06:24PM
You don't really get this politics lark do you ?
31 December 2011 06:38PM
Unfortunately he is 100% an IDS, he's a placeholder leader, someone to get Labour through the difficult few years post power before they choose someone else with the charisma to get elected.
There is no point in bringing out the big guns this early in the game, 4 years from now they'll have lost their shine.
I'd love nothing more than to see Labour go into the next election with Ed (either Ed in fact) in charge... but only because I want a Tory win.
Unfortunately I don't think even Labour MPs are quite that stupid.
31 December 2011 06:40PM
pauldanon 31 December 2011 05:39PM
Another bunch of foolish words from the Tory Tax Strike that merely serve to reveal how irrelevant they are to the situation and how little is to be gained by including the Conservative Party in the discussions that must now shape our future.
The actual cause of our problems is that there never has been such a thing as a viable market economy - that economic prosperity is a temporary consequence of war - only longer lasting enough to give the impression of permanence this time because it followed a war which flattened the cities of Europe and Asia and threatened civilisation with nuclear extinction, leading to a massive rebuilding program and an arms race.
The normal condition is economic slump, sub-speciating inequality, slavery and economically-induced premature death for most of the population - and we have just spent 18 months experiencing how the forces of reaction bring that about.
This time, however, automation and the internet have queered their pitch. Automation has hollowed out the work ethic whose exploitation is the shackle and the internet has broken the silence with which it is applied. For the first time in history permanent emancipation from slavery and war is actually possible and the Labour Party is the only established vehicle this country has to make sure we take advantage of this moment of opportunity.
That is why Ed Miliband was absolutely correct in directing Labour's efforts to policy renewal as the means of awakening a revolutionary dialogue with all the communities in this country and that is why the commentariat is getting its knickers in such a twist about the way Labour is ignoring the same old same old.
31 December 2011 07:02PM
As a Labour party activist in the north (I know many Guardian writers may not know, or worse, have forgotten, where that is, but try Google maps) can I just say we're quite optimistic about 2012 and beyond. We're looking forward to giving the Guardian's precious Liberal Democrats another roasting in May's local council elections and are working hard to recover from the difficulties of 2010 and develop new policies at the local and national level.
Obviously, it's different in different parts of the country but on the doorsteps, I don't find any admiration for Cameron. On the contrary, he's seen as a divisive figure who is fast becoming as loathed as any - and I mean any - tory leader in my lifetime. And we're behind Ed Miliband as the leader, even though obviously half of us didn't vote for him as first preference. We've had the leadership election and there is no hunger whatsoever for another one.
Just thought I'd give you a peak behind the curtain of life outside the Westminster bubble.
31 December 2011 07:03PM
Oh dear, so it can get worse. I'm sure Ed is a charming, thoughtful and intelligent man but unfortunately for him he comes over in public as a little strange and other-worldly...just like Rowan Williams! Dr Williams has a habit of making speeches that leave the readers/listeners scratching their head and wondering just what he was going on about. and he's also (possibly unfairly) a figure of ridicule in the popular press. How can hiring an adviser to Dr Williams do anything but more damage?
31 December 2011 07:07PM
Ha ha. I do know the difference between peak and peek. Forgive my hamfisted keyboard skills.
31 December 2011 07:08PM
Yet another "Ed is crap" article from the Guardian. Is that 5 now over the Christmas holiday? You're really out to get him, aren't you?
As he prepares Cameron's next speech, Julian Glover will be pleased that his legacy at the Guardian lives on.
One problem. In the absence of any repentence for your support for the Liberal Democrats in 2010, no-one on the left is listening to you.
What's the circulation down to now?
31 December 2011 07:26PM
I thought it was the first day of April for a laugh! I had the misfortune to listen to that idiot Julian (Twinky) Glover last year. What a bore. Let him write Cameron's speech - that should sort him out! But isn't it time the Guardian made up its mind what it's supporting? Those of us who like Ed do think he needs to bold it out a bit more and start to attack Cameron and Clegg - but it's also early days and despite the media wanting blood we just need to just pace it. I know it must be a shock for those Blairites and Cameroons but having a Leader doesn't mean he should be sitting there drinking frothy cappucino every 5 minutes and looking into the camera lens. Others do need to come forward and play a more substantial role and, gradually, that is what's happening. Look behind the scenes to people like Rachel Reeves, the Eagle sisters, Ed and Yvette, and Caroline Flint and many other of the new faces and watch how they realise they have the power to open their mouth and speak without some great gobbed Cameron or Blair doing it for them. It's called a Cabinet and although the Tories and Troggs (lib-dems) and Blairite labour allowed their boss to boss them around, Ed is letting new ideas through via a strong and mindful crew. Just watch!!
31 December 2011 07:32PM
what are the reasons? we may as well know now you've given us the hook!!
31 December 2011 07:32PM
i voted for him (ed) in the leadership election, because i wanted substance over style. but so far we've seen nothing, absolutely nothing. he's spoken a lot but actually said nothing and done nothing of any value. policy renewal is all very well but now we need him to actually stand for something, to believe in, and do, something. so far he's done nothing at all. he should be standing up to the tories, fighting the cuts to disability and to care, to education and to jobs. the truth is simple, he and all the others in the political sphere simply have no contact with what its like for the ordinary or the disavantaged people of this country. they will get paid, get all their various perks and their pension, they'll have their nice cushy consultancies and eurojobs when they leave parliament. but then why should they care, they're all millionaires, and when they balls it all up the worst that can happen to them is they lose their seats. if i could speak the powerful in the labour party i'd say this to them, don't make the mistake you did with brown, get rid of milliband now. find someone with some guts, some heart, someone who care's, not just about what they say in the sun, or about the rich. we need a true labour man, not a new labour man.
31 December 2011 07:55PM
There's no getting away from the fact that his background and his privileged Oxbridge PPE / research / parachuted / leader route into politics does look intrinsically geeky to a public who are already deeply cynical about politics and politicians.
In fact, with that political obsessed background and his age, he'd have needed to be exceptionally charismatic and/or intellectually confident to change that impression. Sadly he isn't either of those things. He sounds, looks and acts like a geeky sixth-former, out of his depth, certainly not PM material .
All that said, from the very limited amount he has actually said on policy, he has the right ideas going forward. But even the best deal is a no sell , if the person selling makes voters queasy .
31 December 2011 07:56PM
This is all becoming childishly, peevishly tedious Guardian. What with the letter of the day, or whatever it was, and all the other articles this is overkill. Do give it, and us, a rest. And I say that as a poster not always uncritical of the Labour Party.
31 December 2011 08:05PM
Ed Miliband's looks have nothing to do with politics. I despair if the electorate actually judge somebody in such a shallow and vulgar manner. This is not Britain's Next Top Model, it is politics. Rather a "geek" over some vacuous, glammed up PR tosser like Blair or Cameron.
You do have a point about the Oxbridge/PPE thing though. It's practically the entry requirement for a lot of British and Commonwealth politicians (heck, even Benazir Bhutto was a PPE graduate!). I myself would like to see more doctors, nurses and teachers in politics.
31 December 2011 08:14PM
Not as good photo for the article.
Irrespective of ones politics, a photo with a slight sneer, and a 'what on earth are you looking at' face doesn't make him endearing does it ?
Next please .... this time looking less like Beaker out of the Muppets !
31 December 2011 08:54PM
It's getting tedious isn't it. Perhaps the editorial team will begin to change their tune when their beloved Lib-Dems get massacred again in the local elections.
31 December 2011 09:21PM
Things to be cheerful about? Milliband and Balls stay in charge, no more Labour governments to screw up the economy.
31 December 2011 09:31PM
People should get behind Ed. He will succeed.
He's already taking steps to get rid of his 'odd' image. The more family photo-shoots, the better. Cameron's 'at home' webcam & his family man image off-set folks doubts about a 'toff' being PM. It will work just as well to off-set people's perceptions of Ed being 'odd'.
Next, David Miliband needs to get over his strop & accept what everybody else knows: He is not going to be Labour leader, ever. Once David gets over it & can genuinely wish Ed well, we should get to see some nice pictures of them doing friendly stuff together e.g. watching a footie match at whatever club David is working with (sorry, can't remember which it is). Authentic, brotherly stuff will go down a treat with nearly all of us all. Cynics who are nasty about it, they'll just seem... cynical & nasty.
And Ed needs to go make friends with the trendsetters & opinion influencers outside of the Westminster 'village'. Regional newspapers, TV stations, Radio broadcasters, unaligned bloggers who'll warm to him in person. All the stuff & people that Cameron & Co don't go down well with, Ed Miliband can get them on his side because everybody who meets Ed, likes him.
Once people get to know & like him, they'll listen to what he has to say. From there on, it's going to be much easier for him to get a fair hearing.
31 December 2011 09:47PM
Red Ed is an odd ball, as odd as the Balls himself. With Mr Balls sitting on oneside and Mrs Balls on the other, the troika projects a fantastic reason why Labour should not be voted to win.
@Amber: You must be the only cheer leader for Red Ed.
31 December 2011 10:13PM
Cameron got the media to respect him simply by putting the hours in.
Nearly every single day for his first 18 months as Conservative leader, he was giving interviews reacting to the latest news event. He put in hours and hours and hours of face time, and he repeated a few simple messages over and over again until they stuck in the public consciousness. I never heard the word 'dither' before Cameron came along. Now it's the first word that comes to mind when I think of Gordon Brown.
Cameron put in the hours to get to where he is. Ed had been nowhere.
Ed needs pick some strong narratives and he needs to hammer them home day in day out on every media outlet going for as long as it takes. That's the only way.
Otherwise, bring back David. That kid has got it.
31 December 2011 10:15PM
"@Amber: You must be the only cheer leader for Red Ed."
You haven't been paying attention, have you?
31 December 2011 10:25PM
I am extremely angry with the Labour party and - as someone who lives on the European continent - Socialist parties in general.
I am also angry at the fact that being a virulent critic of Labour's policies and tactics gets me labelled as a 'Tory.'
When will the Labour party and socialism begin to adapt themselves to new realities and offer workable solutions to our problems? When will they revamp their philosophical and historical perspectives in the light of change? When will they unfetter themselves from their serf-like dependance on what are these days (but weren't 30 years ago) rich and corporatist unions? And, finally, when will they recognise that systematic and frontal opposition to everything a government does not obviate the need for policies and a clear agenda?
I'm begging to be able to vote Labour, but Labour couldn't care less about the public from where it is, inside its bubble. And I'm sure I am not alone in saying so.
31 December 2011 10:27PM
Well lets put it this way,I would trust Ed against anything now supposedly representing the interests of this country in the name of a fast buck.
31 December 2011 10:28PM
Are you paranoid?
31 December 2011 10:33PM
People say the voted for Ed over David because they wanted 'substance over style.'
Your mistake was to think that David did not have substance just because he has style.
I've always been very impressed by everything David has had to say in interviews and speeches and articles. He's an intelligent guy with a good heart, and is a nuanced communicator as well as a total hearthrob.
It's a shame that people disregarded his talent because of his style.
Come back David!
31 December 2011 10:44PM
Your own headline subtext says it all really,
"It hasn't been a very comfortable Christmas for Labour's leader, with Cameron basking in media praise and his own gloomy MPs beginning to murmur ominously".
The biggest problem for Labour (including Miliband) is the bias from the right wing media, and yes.... i do include the BBC in that.
31 December 2011 10:45PM
Are you the new Mrs Milliband
31 December 2011 10:47PM
"Are you the new Mrs Milliband [sic]"
Hilarious! I thought for a moment that David Cameron had come into the room.
31 December 2011 10:49PM
The point, for me anyway, is that presentation IS important now. The Leader of a Party has to give the impression of competance, of being a Leader. Ed does not give that opinion. Many good/great PM's of the past would not pass today's tests but they are today's tests.
31 December 2011 10:59PM
The leader's office, which has just poached Tim Livesey, the Archbishop of Canterbury's senior adviser.
This just about sums up milliband and his cronies at the top of Labour
this is the man whos advice has took the archbishop downhill in most peoples estimation.
and by the way the brother would be even worse as he annoyed billions of Indians and he was not even top dog at the time.
31 December 2011 11:08PM
Director of polling group BritainThinks
Ed's challenge is to show voters the leader he can become,
To late people know without you trying. He is like the Euro a corpse that refuses to stiffen
31 December 2011 11:17PM
WHAT!!!
The BBC are known for acting as the platform for the Labour agenda. It's time Cameron grew a pair and kicked-out all the lefties.
Who cares who leads Labour? After 13 years of these Muppets, leaving the UK economically, morally and spiritually bankrupt, surely we are not daft enough to vote them back in, so their leadership issue is irrelevant.
31 December 2011 11:34PM
One place in the north you are not doing well with Lib Dems taking seats from Labour in 2011, and winning by elections since, is Redcar. Must have something to do with the Labour Council being the worst in the country and the last Labour government abandoning the steel industry.
The article is reasonable. Labour should be streets ahead by now not marginally behind.
31 December 2011 11:50PM
Another load of rubbish from the guardians get Ed campaign. Full of the usual distortions about polls (the euro veto bounce has faded and the lib dems are still dead).
Any Labour leader is going to get this from the right wing press. The fact the guardian is engaging in political mud slinging, which is all their articles amount to is a surprise (remember the facile photo caption rubbish).
Dear Guardian - Clegg is a Tory and your beloved lib dems will cease to exist come the next election. Get over it, say sorry for supporting them, and move on.
1 January 2012 12:07AM
The Liberal Democrats have formed an unholy alliance with the Tories. They should have known better!. Nick Clegg has allowed Cameron to wreak havoc on this country.We are already a divided country as as many the posts here on The Guardian's show. When the "cuts" really start to bite we will become even more divided. Now is not the time for the Labour Party to start showing its internal wrangling to the general public! This happens all too often and the party does itself no favour. Those who have doubts should keep them to themselves and not get into power struggles behind the scenes. The Tories are far cleverer in hiding discord which serves them well, Ed Miliband is the duly elected leader of the Labour Party and as such he should be allowed to lead without having to be concerned about who has got the knife out to stick it in his back!
Ed Miliband has integrity, which Cameron lacks;he does have presence and decency. He may not wish to be as brash, arrogant and bullying as Cameron is at PMQs because he does not believe that the parlous state of the nation will be best served by a flippant "smart alec" attitude.
When the country faced many more problems than we do now, there was a superb Prime Minister in charge - his name was Clement Atlee. He and his fellow MPs got the country back on its feet without punishing the poorer people of Britain. In fact he managed to make their lives better. I doubt that Cameron has any intention of making life better for most of us. His friends, cronies and paymasters will be well provided for of course whilst we "little people" will be the ones who will be unfairly made to pay the heavy price for the ever increasing greed and mistakes of the Banking Fraternity.
Ed Miliband should not be judged superficially. He has over the past 20 months endured the blame for all the country's ills,He has been blamed for the deficit, he has been blamed for the lack of regulating the Banks.
If the Tories truly felt strongly that the Banks need tougher regulations they have already had time enough
to do something about it! They have been quick enough to roll back state support for almost everything. They have been quick enough to increase unemployment to an obscene level, which is no surprise as the Tories believe that "unemployment is a price worth paying" Cameron already has enough to apologise and account for. I wish him luck with his Tory Eurosceptic MPs - he is going to need it, as some of them are more slippery and even more devious than he is.
1 January 2012 12:32AM
Cannot understand why people keep trashing Ed's looks. If looks are what matters Ed wins outright. Cameron is not remotely attractive. Ed's manner is also warm and amiable. What kind of people are moved by Cameron's sneering, jeering and bullying? Certainly not females.
1 January 2012 12:33AM
Nicely said! Cameron is ironically the least Eurosceptic Conservative right now along with maybe Ken Clarke (he should have been their leader in 2005, but is always deemed too liberal for the Tories). Probably because he wants to line himself up for a cushy job in the EU Commission after he retires from British politics. His veto of that EU treaty amendment was only because his party would stood outside 10 Downing Streets with burning stakes ready if he agreed to it. He'd have suffered a worse fate than Major did during the Maastricht days. Merkel is going to relish every moment of making chutney out of Cameron this year and this will make the Tories turn on him even more.
It was very easy for him to condemn Labour (and they did a lot to screw up things at the time) while he was Opposition leader about the unfettered rampage of the banks. At that time he projected a more moderate side, but the fact remains that he probably has friends in high places in the financial sector. That is why he exaggerated this story about runaway public spending (it was somewhat problematic, but it didn't cause the deficit, it was the banks). Taxing the bankers (which would only amount to a pittance compared to the perverse amounts they earn) could ease the deficit in a few years rather than slashing public spending left and right.
The Liberal Democrats are going to be consigned to the dustbins of history. Don't be surprised if they poll below UKIP and even BNP in future elections.
1 January 2012 12:44AM
Politics that can free us is not a performance spectacle. The media want political figures to be entertainers, because that makes them better vehicles for selling news. However, for those who look to public political figures for leadership, what matters is not whether they put on a good show, but whether they work to improve the lot of those who support and vote for them.
It isn't the same thing, is it? I may find someone "dull" or "plodding," but by gosh if the laws s/he is pushing are what's needed, and if s/he is talking about the real issues, that's what I expect. Further, s/he needs to keep the party organization on its toes, and that's a bit of work right there.
Fools want to be dazzled--and those who are dazzled do not see matters as they truly are. Get the stars out of your eyes, and realize that media "stars" are the self-created product of the media. Real leaders are not flashy.
1 January 2012 12:48AM
Dump him. Labour needs vison and a radical revival