Miliband’s doing well, so why don’t we say so?

By David Talbot

In recent weeks Ed Miliband has faced a barrage of criticism, not from the public, it seems, but from our esteemed media. A series of columnists have lined up to criticise and condemn the Labour leader. Jackie Ashley started the sequence, then Steve Richards, John Harris, Johann Hari piled in and this week Dan Hodges waded in, not to mention Mary Ann Sieghart over in the Independent having an almost identical argument to those preceding it. Putting aside that this is a classic example of media-herding, the central argument appears to be that young Ed needs to up his game, detail what Labour stands for and offer a definite narrative for the future. But why is Ed Miliband coming in for so much criticism, and why don’t those who support him speak out?

I was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Ed Miliband. I have long suspected that the depth of despair inherent in some over his election is the repressed despair that the annointed one did not win. The narrowness of the victory and the reliance on union members’ votes was immediately seized upon to challenge Miliband’s legitimacy – as though the ability to attract the support of tens of thousands of ordinary Labour supporters in a ballot should somehow be regarded as a political failure. You might think winning what is effectively a national primary by a total of 175,000 to 147,000 votes – more than elected either David Cameron or Nick Clegg – is a perfectly decent result.

Some of the criticism is justified, all leaders can strive to do better and, as a recent example, whilst Miliband was right to attend the TUC rally, his choice of rhetoric was plain daft and opened him up to ridicule. Invoking the spirit of the suffragettes, the civil rights movement and apartheid in South Africa might have looked appealing to the speechwriter, but the audience at which it was aimed at, unlike those oppressed peoples, all have the vote and had used it only last year.

But Miliband certainly does deserve credit for stabilising Labour’s support. Whilst working as a correspondent at the excellent PoliticsHome last year, I was regularly dismayed at the polling and focus group findings pouring in every day during the election. Labour hit a low of 24%, an apocalyptic figure. But less than one year after Labour’s worst election result in a quarter of a century, it is back on its feet and enjoying a steady lead in the opinion polls. There is now also a developing trend to his approach to opposition. A run that started a few weeks ago with a good speech at the Scottish conference was noticed by some in Westminster when he outdid Cameron in Prime Minister’s questions on the subject of the NHS, on which the government is now in a complete shambles over, was sustained in his response to Libya, and wasn’t upturned with his response to the budget. There is categorically no need for him, at this stage, to come out with detailed policies for government. But he has mastered the art of opposition early and the government looks increasingly incompetent as a result.

By sketching the outlines of a recognisably social democratic agenda the new Labour leader has begun to address the crisis of representation that has gripped mainstream politics for two decades. This has no doubt fed the Blairite sense of grievance which will try and hobble the newly elected leader’s attempt to steer Labour in a new direction. The fight against David Cameron is winnable and at this early stage of the new parliament, Miliband is perfectly poised to win outright in 2015. He has his supporters and detractors, as all leaders do, but it is time the former’s praise drowned out the latter’s disdain.