Are we too unkind to Ed?

It is difficult to think of any other country in the world where politicians are hounded quite as much as they are here in the UK. The media work, to use a phrase from a past leader, like “feral beasts” tearing people and reputations apart. The fierce competition for stories has led our media to hunt in a pack, and the immediacy of social media has all but removed time as an obstacle. Ed Miliband will no doubt be painfully aware of this, as a chorus of criticism has greeted him in the opening skirmishes of 2012.

He has had a torrid start to the year, not because of anything he might have said or done – indeed the perception that he has not said or done anything features prominently among the charges – but because his personal polling and that of the Labour Party’s are far below that where they ought to be. Towards the end of last year Labour slipped behind the Conservatives in the polls and the terrible realisation dawned that voters may not be as appalled as the Coalition’s dealing as Labour politicians. The recognition for many seems reluctant, and only tentatively absorbed.

The belief underlying the more astute criticism is that, 18 months into Parliament, Labour should be doing better than it is, and the fact that it is not reflects poor leadership. Moreover, the robust polling the Conservatives enjoy is evidence that voters understand the need for austerity. They believe that the cuts are needed; they don’t like them, they think they are unfair and hurting the economy, but consistently they say they are necessary – moreover, they blame the heritage of Labour for that necessity more than the Conservatives. Ed Balls has battled bravely but has categorically lost the key economic argument of this Parliament. Even when Osborne admitted that he will miss his target to eliminate the structural deficit by 2015, polls show the Conservatives retain a thumping lead over Labour in the economic credibility stakes. ComRes released polling showing that Miliband and Balls even fall below Nick Clegg on trust and the economy. This is not only disastrous but a disgrace.

“Politics is now in the fallow period between elections where the public switches off, so it would be hard for Miliband to get his message across, even if he had one.” The party in fact generates surprisingly little interest amongst the public on any topic. Crucially though, voters consistently say that the Labour leader must clarify his party’s approach to the deficit, which at present can be summed up as a recognition that there is a need to sort out the budget deficit – but in a less radical manner than currently proposed by Osborne.

Ed Miliband won the Labour leadership despite the media, and it shows. But they have rightly scented weakness. We in the Labour party have historically not panicked and stuck through with our leaders. But dissent is stirring. As the ever-astute Rob Marchant notes, this criticism is not barbed but unfailingly with the best interests of the party at heart. The danger is that we were too stunned, too intrigued and in the end too kind in Miliband’s first 18 months to truly gauge his credentials.

The question I have asked as the title is ultimately subjective. It will boil down to personal preferences. But sometime soon Miliband will have to silence his critics, or we may well begrudgingly realise that being unkind is all we have.