Briefing: Advice today for Ed Miliband

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.