We have found our champion

By Dan Hodges / @dpjhodges

The plastic loyalists are on the march. Luke Akehurst, who has seamlessly reinvented himself from Blairite ultra to champion of the new politics, has today blasted away at me for my disloyalty, lack of foresight and general mean spiritedness.

Well, actually, he hasn’t so much blasted away at me as a group of people who have commented on my articles, but in Hari’esq fashion, that’s a mere detail.

“I told you so”, he bellows, modestly and endearingly. “While some of us kept the faith and knew that Ed had what it took to be a great Labour leader, and have been vindicated, it’s now amusing (whereas at the time it was annoying and infuriating) to see how badly flawed others’ judgement of him was even a matter of days ago”.

Ah yes, a few days ago. The BC era; Before Coulson.

Remember those dark days. When Labour still reeled from its crushing election defeat. When David Cameron floated above politics like, well, like a fluttery, floaty thing.

And Ed Miliband. Oh my. Poor Ed. Enemies to the right of him. Enemies to the left of him. Only Luke Akehurst and Peter Hain to defend him. And even Peter did a runner when the party turned over the strikes.

But those days are now gone. The government is in melt-down. Cameron has feet of clay. Ed Miliband has turned politics on its head.

“Phone-hacking is no magic bullet”, I wrote last week. How wrong I was. It’s over. It’s all over. Our year and a bit in the wilderness is at an end.

In the next few weeks David Cameron will be forced to resign. Osborne too. Cabinet Ministers will fall like nine-pins. What did Michael Gove know, and when did he know it? On past experience, very little, ever.

The compromise candidate, George Eustice, will be ushered in as the new Tory Leader and Prime Minister. Nick Clegg, weeping tears of redemption, will resign from the cabinet, and the coalition.

Then to the election. The blank sheet of paper will be forgotten. Labour’s failure to get to grips with the deficit a mere footnote. The cry “we want Ed” will rise from every street, housing estate and village in the land. Labour will phone-hack its way back to power.

Ed Miliband has excelled during this crisis. He pushed hard when others counseled caution, and took the victory when others would have over-reached. He has shown he can play big politics, and win.

But this is real life, not an episode of the West Wing. Political fortunes do not transform in the space of a single 45 minute episode. And certainly not the fortunes of a party that experienced what we went through in 2010.

But the Labour Party does not want to hear this at the moment. We don’t want a political strategy, we want a conjurors trick. We don’t want to work steadily towards power, we want the nightmare of opposition to be magically wished away.

Two weeks ago Ed Miliband was a traitor for not backing the unions. Now he is our Messiah for taking on Murdoch.

The fact is Ed Miliband first showed signs he was beginning to find his feet a month ago with his speech on personal responsibility. But that didn’t chime with those demanding Ed should be Ed. So we kept the banners and bunting unfurled.

No dull, practical, pragmatic politics for us. We want heroes and villains. We want dragons to slay, and damsels to save. We need a knight with sun glinting upon his breastplate.

And now we’ve found one. We never doubted. Never for a moment thought he would fail to prise the sword from the stone.

Well I doubted, of course. But what did I know. Our champion has come. And all our troubles are ended.