Well I know honeymoons are getting shorter but you have to have a lot of sympathy for Ed Milliband. I have no idea how he will turn out as the new party leader and the reality is that no one else does either. This has not stopped whole sections of the press rubbishing him from the moment he was elected.
If this were not enough he has a disgruntled elder brother David Milliband to consider. It is immaterial whether David would have been the better leader, this also has a lot of question marks hanging over it too, he should do the decent thing and resign from politics and find something else to do. As long as he is there he is going to be a figurehead around which all the disgruntled MPs can gather. I also suspect that this might be the best course of action as far as his personal relations with his brother are concerned. Nothing good will come of his staying put, let alone getting into the shadow cabinet.
As for the policies that Ed Milliband will put forward who knows how they will work out. He doesn't have to rush things over the next year either as the government will become very unpopular by itself. The best thing for Labour is to play a long game and assume that this parliament will last a full five years. They should reject any short term love in with disaffected Lib Dems and try and work out how they will govern post 2015. There are going to be a whole series of pit falls that Labour is going to have to negotiates themselves, not least if the public sector unions try and flex their muscle. This might seem sensible for the unions concerned but for Labour it will be a death knell as it will only amplify the fact that Ed Milliband was elected by the union's votes.
So it is going to be hugely difficult for Labour over the next 5 years but it vital to the country that we have a viable opposition. Should this not be the case then maybe Ed Milliband is Gordon Brown mark 2 or worse Michael Foot and Labour will have to start thinking about governing in the mid to late 2020s. Now that is a freighting thought.
Simon Marchini LRPS
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini
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