Is Ed Miliband Really a Debate-Changer?

According to Nick Cohen Ed Miliband is Britain’s Greatest Leader of the Opposition. Blimey, that’s quite a statement. He’s a plucky wee chap too:

Ed Miliband is a geek, a failure and a loser. All the press says so, so it must be true. Yet the apparent no-hoper retains the ability of the boy who confronted the naked emperor to change the terms of debate.

But what debates has he changed? Nick suggests Miliband was brave to stand-up to Rupert Murdoch and that he’s been right to lead the way in banker-bashing. Perhaps so. But few people outside Westminster (and parts of north London) actually care very much, if at all, about Rupert Murdoch even if they do deplore (or pretend to deplore) the tabloids. It’s not a vote-harvesting issue.

As for banking: well, sure, Ed’s in tune with the public mood here but that doesn’t mean he’ll necessarily receive much, if any credit, for anything. Even if you accept Miliband is right that doesn’t mean he will benefit from being right. That may not be fair but it’s also the way it may well be.

Furthermore, I fear that even if the public were minded to give Miliband the credit Nick thinks he deserves something will somehow get in the way of him receiving that measure of devotion to which he might, in a fairer world, be entitled. Miliband’s manner is so much at odds with the conventional notion of what constitutes “Prime Ministerial” stuff that I’m not sure people are willing to imagne him Prime Minister. This, I fancy, includes many people who, all things being equal, are more likely to agree with Miliband than Cameron. Again, this may well be unfair but, damn it, so are voters. If voters have difficulty imagining a leader in Downing Street (ask Iain Duncan Smith about this) then you can be as right as you like on all the issues in the world and it won’t be enough to send you into power.

Besides, the test of an opposition leader is whether or not he ever gives up that job and swaps benches with the Prime Minister. That’s a test Miliband hasn’t passed yet though, to be fair, one he hasn’t failed either.