Certain Labour types like to argue that this summer season of discontent for Ed Miliband is just a media mirage, made up mostly of journalists talking to each other. That might have a grain of truth: the corridors of Parliament are dusty and echoey at this time of year, and the only people found wandering them are bewildered lobby hacks and bored policemen. But the problem is that all this talk of the problems facing Ed Miliband has offered an opportunity for those in Labour party who think there is a problem to come out of the woodwork. And that there are more and more big names coming out – rather than the slightly worried backbenchers who started the grumbling – is the real problem. This summer has been an opportunity for nerves about the party’s prospects to come to the fore.
Yesterday it was Lord Prescott’s helpful column in the Sunday Mirror. Today there’s more advice for Ed Miliband for other grandees. It’s getting difficult to stay on top of the advice. It keeps pouring in, like red bills through a letterbox. Even if Miliband is putting all the advice under his doormat and pretending that nothing is happening, it seems to keep coming. Here’s a round-up of all the advice that he’s received today.
1. Lord Glasman thinks Miliband should hire Frank Field.
Not content with his Mail on Sunday piece, Glasman (formerly Miliband’s guru, but now persona non grata after a few too many outspoken comments) spoke to The Times and recommended that he appoint Frank Field to lead the welfare policy brief. Here are a few insights into what that would entail.
2. Ken Livingstone thinks Lord Prescott is wrong and the Shadow Cabinet are all on holiday.
The former London mayor tells the Evening Standard this afternoon that Prezza should ‘retire – you have had your turn, you screwed it up, don’t try and wreck it for others’. He does think Miliband is ‘the most impressive Labour leader’ since John Smith. But he doesn’t seem quite so keen on the shadow cabinet, telling the paper that half the team should take their holidays at the start of August and the other two in the remaining two weeks. This last is perhaps the most telling: it’s not just Miliband that’s the problem: it’s the team around him.
3. Tom Harris thinks the party needs to stop talking tofu.
One of the best writers in the party, Harris argues on the Telegraph website this afternoon that Labour’s drive to lower the voting age to 16 is ‘exactly the kind of middle-class dinner party issue that tofu eaters throughout the country get really excited about’. He also suggests that ‘Labour is starting to move away from talking about real life issues to talking instead about irrelevant, niche subjects that will impress and affect nobody’.
4. Ed Balls is… er…
Ed Balls, never a man to keep his opinion anywhere other than firmly on his sleeve, seems to be keeping quiet about how great Ed is at the moment.
This isn’t to mention the slew of advice from bloggers, commentators and callers to a Radio 5Live phone-in this morning, who weren’t all that convinced either. Still, at least there’s only just under two weeks left until recess finishes…
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