Depressing day for Red Ed

It really hasn't been Ed Miliband's day. First, his speech to the Fabian Society has been dissected and found totally inadequate for an opposition leader whose primary job is to guide his party towards electability.

Of course, one might expect a Conservative MP to take it apart, as Matthew Hancock has in The Spectator Coffee House blog today. However it is difficult to seriously quibble with what he has written; and the ever-sharp (though still in need of a proofreader!) editor of the Speccie, James Forsyth, has reached similar conclusions, though he thinks the Labour leader might at least be moving toward acknowledging his party's failures on the economy.

Bottom line:
Red Ed is still in denial about Labour's part in Britain's financial mess, and can therefore never be credible on the economy!

Ed's problem is that the general public will come to realise this over time, and this will become plainly visible in the opinion polls in about two years from now, I estimate. By that time, Labour really need to be in a position where the voters of Britain will take real notice of that party's leadership (and yes, Alan Johnson will have to be replaced as Shadow Chancellor before that can happen) to give them a good run-up time toward the 2015 election.

I can't see it happening, myself.

Meanwhile, another of Ed's wheezes, the Fresh Ideas website, had a mere 96 visitors who logged on to the site for Ed's live question-and-answer session. All in all it hasn't been a very successful time for him, which might explain the somewhat strained and manic look on his face in the photo above!