Peter Emmerson

Unlike the Tories, the Labour leadership seem paralysed by the outcomes of the Scottish referendum.  For me the highlight of the final weeks of the Scottish referendum was to see an old soldier return to the fray – Stormin’ Gordon Brown.  It was great to see him striding around the political platform having licked his wounds for long enough.  There was no posturing here, we could see it mattered.  He came out fighting with a passion, until then, only displayed by Yes campaigners.  His visceral performances arguably stemmed the flow of voters away from the No campaign sufficient to avoid defeat. 

The strident conviction deployed with such effect by the previous Labour leader contrasts markedly with the performance of his successor.  What I saw from Ed Miliband on the Tuesday of the last Labour Party Conference was the diffident, unconvincing display of a man totally out of his depth, short on charisma and the ability to put together a team that could develop the ideas needed to win an election.  Miliband is a man lost, leading a shadow cabinet who are for the most part as inept as he is.  Team Miliband have had four years to develop policies fit to send packing governors who have been on the back foot ever since their uncosy alliances were formed during the severe business collapse.  Subsequently, the governing partners have over-borrowed and over-borrowed whilst cutting and cutting and cutting: Labour as the only substantive alternative should by now be out of sight, preparing for electoral victory next May.  Instead they are playing for time executing what amounts to little more than a tactical defence focussed on exploiting government weaknesses or spewing out tawdry mantras of idealistic nonsense such as ‘togetherness’ (arguably just paraphrasing the Tory slogan of ‘we’re all in it together’), working the safe ground of the NHS, like a dazed boxer on the ropes hoping to throw a lucky punch – team Miliband look beaten.