I feel sorry for Ed Miliband. That’s probably the worst thing I have ever said about him. You don’t vote for people out of pity. Twitter has rallied around the “beleaguered” leader with a hashtag webackEd, a desperate manoeuvre if ever I saw one. There has also been a series of put-up or shut-up interviews and pieces. Since summer, Miliband’s “indecision” has been repeatedly remarked on to me by party activists.
All of which makes Labour look ridiculous. They don’t like their leader, who in four years has not been able to communicate his vision to the party, never mind the public. Six months before an election, MPs who are relaying back what people say on the doorstep – “Who is Ed Miliband?” – are seen as disloyal vipers. Activists I know are despairing.
The defence of Ed amounts to “he is a nice bloke” and “er ... there isn’t anyone else”. Has no one noticed that politics has shifted lately? It is exactly this kind of complacency that means the SNP can legitimately behave as if they won in Scotland, while Labour there is in disarray. It is exactly this denial that will lose Labour votes to Ukip.
And it’s not just about Ed. Principles, character, narrative, beliefs, the desire for authenticity – which the electorate value – is something the professional political class frets about but knows it cannot manufacture. So we have clever, clever people strategising on numbers and marginals, talking about how they can scrape in by splitting the rightwing vote – but who appear to have no basic emotional understanding at all.
After years of disastrous Blair/Brown rivalry, we had more symbolic fratricide at the top of the party when nice bloke Ed ruined his brother’s life. In my world, this is bizarre: you teach your children to share and take turns. Did no one say: “He has got the Lego/Labour party for a bit, then it’s your turn”?
But all this dysfunction is somehow acceptable, as is the fact that, if Ed had a serious accident with his Lego today, Harriet Harman would be leader. But she is strangely absent in any discussion about long-term prospects for the party leadership.
Instead, we have the return of the repressed – and the repressed group in politics, of course, is the working class. Lets get an actual working-class person to lead the Labour party! Hence the sudden crush on Alan Johnson, who says he doesn’t want it, and was not rated highly when he was home secretary. A friend of mine noted that this is equivalent to finding out on Facebook that your old ex is now single, and pursuing them. That always works out well!
Never mind the fantasy, the reality is that in many senses, Ed Miliband is already gone. What matters is what Labour actually stands for, as the Tory austerity narrative unravels. Even the Financial Times and the International Monetary Fund say Conservative tax cuts will be impossible, and there will be way more severe damage to public services. Labour has to be clear about Europe and understand that the two-party system is over.
So this is not simply about Ed’s tone, or one speech or another. We are living in a land of foodbanks and palaces, a country of low wages, high rent, deep insecurity. “The Labour party is a moral crusade or it is nothing,” said Harold Wilson.
The Labour party currently forgoes the moral crusade for this managerial listlessness. And we keep being told there is no choice but Ed, an entirely negative message. Pollsters and wonkery have triumphed, but opposition depends on hopefulness. If you tell people there is no choice but Ed Miliband, it’s hopeless. This is politics at its most cynical.
