We’ve got time on our side – but we far from resemble a government in waiting

By Gino D’Oca

In hindsight the best outcome for Labour at the last general election was defeat. Had Gordon Brown scraped home with a wafer thin majority, the resulting administration, visibly exhausted and struggling to sound fresh going into the election, would have emerged fragile, most likely to be annihilated at the next election – very possibly before a full term. The party’s achievement was that its defeat was respectable, laying firm foundations for eventual re-election.

Just under a year later, although still hanging together, the ConDems are faltering. The government’s catalogue of u-turns and backtracking over half-baked policy – most recently the fiasco over proposed NHS reforms – is a symptom of the its inability to engage in joined-up thinking by first consulting experts and professionals who know what they are talking about, before formulating policy.

These own goals brought about by coalition incompetence should be a gift to Labour. The problem is that Ed Miliband has some way to go before he looks and sounds Prime Ministerial; and the parliamentary party is far from resembling a credible government-in-waiting.

I suspect many of those, like me, who gave Ed their first preference, had an inkling deep down this would be the case, at least initially, but still thought it worth the gamble. I voted for Ed partly because I felt he was, relatively speaking, the candidate most capable of bringing something fresh after the Blair-Brown era. I still think that is true – but he needs to demonstrate it. He must make clear what a credible post-credit crunch Labour Party stands for – not simply what it opposes.

What happened to the supposed introspection that was all the vogue during the leadership campaign whose aim was to re-evaluate where Labour had failed and what it should therefore become? The genuine fruits of that exercise remain to be seen.

Labour still has time on its side. The leadership needs to use that time wisely: being in opposition is not only about attacking the ruling administration. Ed has to communicate his ideas effectively and not allow his agenda to be exclusively dictated by the next ConDem mishap.