Lord Mandelson gives Miliband two big tasks

There is always something quietly devastating about a pronouncement from Lord Mandelson. Today more polls reveal the Labour party is failing to make headway when the Tories are in an almighty flap, and the New Labour peer gave his tight-lipped, politely-delivered prescription on the Marr Show for how Ed Miliband can salvage things:

‘I think that Ed Miliband has two tasks. He has one, to continue building up his economic credibility and confidence people have in Labour’s ability to manage the public finances and people’s own money. He has made a very good start at doing that. Secondly he has got to do something even harder, what he has got to do is to show that he is not simply a business-as-usual politician and that the Labour party is simply going to carry on with exactly the same policies as the Coalition Government, or even the policies of the previous New Labour government.