When Ed Miliband stands up in the House of Commons, he might be surprised to hear the loudest cheers coming from the wrong side of the chamber. He is becoming an unlikely Tory champion, the man who’ll do more than anyone else to ensure that David Cameron wins an outright majority at the next general election. Labour MPs grumble, but loyalty is hardwired into their collective DNA. As Gordon Brown knew, the word ‘unity’ has a near-hypnotic effect on his party. Labour has never ejected a bad leader. Unlike the Tories, they have not mastered the art of political regicide. So Labour seems to be stuck with a leader whom its MPs are unwilling to support or supplant.
Miliband was little-known when elected. His allies claimed he ‘spoke human’, unlike his brother David. Yet as each month passes, Mr Miliband looks more like a machine invented by Conservative head office, brilliantly programmed with bad jokes and worse judgment. British inflation has climbed to 5 per cent, the worst in Europe, but Miliband has failed to make his campaign on the cost of living stick. George Osborne is struggling to control state spending, which was higher in 2010-11 than in any year in British history. Yet Mr Miliband blames him for ‘fast, deep’ cuts, the opposite of the embarrassing truth.
On public sector reform, Labour should be mocking the Cameron government for its lack of originality. Michael Gove openly admits that his revolutionary school reform agenda is the continuation of what Tony Blair and Andrew Adonis started. Ditto high-speed rail: as William Astor observes on page 19, this is yet another Adonis policy.
Ed Miliband’s problems are partly explained by the fact that, in his head, he is still running against his brother.
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