Does anybody actually want to win?

Here’s what the Conservatives have done recently:

• Announced £7bn of unfunded tax cuts in their continued quest to be the “fiscally responsible” party.

• Claimed to have halved the UK surcharge to the EU by pre-counting the UK rebate and putting it towards the bill.

• Declared that they would easily destroy Mark Reckless in Rochester and Strood only to see their by-election campaign falter and probably fail.

• Refused to answer whether they would campaign for in or out in a future referendum to EU membership, adding to the sense that Britain under another Conservative(-led) government would stumble out of the EU by accident.

Do the Conservatives actually want to win?

But then think about what some on the Labour side have done recently:

• Allowed and at times encouraged the media to continue to speculate about Ed Miliband’s leadership.

• Failed to criticise effectively the government’s shameful position on drowning refugees.

• Continued to struggle to sell substantial policy ideas to voters in simple, arresting terms, building a shared sense of how the country would change under Labour.

• Failed to make attacks stick against the Tories on points 1-4 above.

Does Labour actually want to win?

Given where the opinion polls currently stand the anticipatory defeatism of anonymous Labour whingers is extraordinary. Given the renewed anguish that may well break out in Conservative ranks after a loss in Rochester next week the destructiveness of nameless Labour briefers is absurd. Given the seeming volatility of voters these days wasting so much energy harming your own side is contemptible.

There is no plausible or superior candidate waiting to take on the Labour leadership from Ed Miliband. So the chatter should stop. It only damages Labour’s chances and helps the Conservatives. It also bores and irritates the public.

Labour supporters would do better to consider the bullet points above, and reflect on what they can do over the next six months to get as many Labour MPs as possible elected.

Presuming they actually want to win, of course.