Why it’s ok to be anonymous

By James Dixon / @thejamesdixon

Ed Miliband hasn’t been in the headlines for a few weeks, and the last time I saw him on TV he was discussing his anaemic stag party. Really, so what?

People clamouring for change in either strategy or personnel are far too obsessed with short term publicity as if being on the front page of the Daily Express or trending on Twitter four years out from the most likely date of a general election is the key to victory.

The greatest challenge facing Labour following the 2010 general election was to avoid being cast as the cause of all the unpopular spending decisions that the coalition government was going to take. There was a concerted effort from the Tory top brass to crowbar “Labour’s finanacial crisis” into any and every answer and that was successfully rebuffed

The majority of the public accept the global origins of the recession in a way that they did not quite fully at the time of the election. This is due to strong rebuttal from all our media spokespeople and the very real manifestation of sovereign debt crises in Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

If Ed Miliband (and Harriet Harman) had not succeeded in stoping that false link being formed in the public consciousness then all the media coverage in the world would have just emphasised negatives and reminded the public why they did not return a Labour government in 2010.

So, why I am not concerned that we are not all over the media attacking the government?

Because other people are.

They aren’t getting off scot-free, civil society is leading the charge against disasterous policies like policing cuts, the NHS re-organisation and the Badger cull and they’re even being canabalised from within by Liberal Democrat malcontents (including the odd cabinet member).

We are the obvious alternative to the coalition government and the (hopefully) asidious low profile that Ed Miliband has adopted has meant that the press and airwaves are dominated by stories of Liberal Democrat and Tory in-fighting, it’s not distinguished and it does not inspire confidence in either party – and all because of a neediness for attention some Labour supporters want to jeprodise this quite congenial situation.

Surely, a broad based coalition (if you excuse that dirty word) of public and private sector voices, charities and yes some Labour voices taking the argument to the country not just the television studios that the path the government are choosing is the wrong one is preferable to being a constant lone voice of criticism.

The non-election of 2007 shows that even beleagured opposition leaders will be awarded the stage to showcase their policies when the time comes, and if they have policies that connect with the public they will gain support.

Leading the media constantly is a luxury of incumbency – governments have things to announce, re-announce and maybe even re-announce again. We had a good run at it, the longest in our history, but the rules of the game have changed, and we have to judge leaders by a different standard.

The local elections results (Scotland aside) show that we are the party that people will turn to when they feel betrayed by the Lib Dems or squeezed by the Tories.

The worst thing we could do is appear more concerned with ourselves than the country. The Tories tried that during the 90s and look how well that worked out for them.