Is Ed’s head already on the chopping block?

[Hopeless Romantic]

Less than one year into the job, the knives are out for the Labour leader – inside and outside the party, says Thomas Rainsborough

Following Labour’s rout in Scotland and the party’s inability to trouble David Cameron’s Conservatives to a serious degree in the local elections, the time has come to address two questions that no one dares to ask. Is Ed Miliband up to the task of leading Labour to victory? And is Miliband’s leadership being sabotaged from within?

Labour’s comprehensive defeat in Scotland casts severe doubts on whether the party can gain an overall majority at the next general election. The party’s competent but uninspiring results elsewhere in Britain also mirror the image that Ed Miliband has acquired since becoming leader. In the immediate aftermath of the regional, local and alternative vote referendum results, the sotto voce carping against Ed Miliband began.

While much of this comes from New Labour irreconcilables, the strong rumours that at least three of his frontbench team are considering walking from the Shadow Cabinet could yet set the narrative for Ed Miliband’s leadership.

Much will ride on how the party – and the media – judge his performance at Labour’s 2011 conference in Liverpool this autumn. But a big elephant trap awaits him next spring in London’s mayoral election. Should Labour’s Ken Livingstone lose out to Boris Johnson for a second time, which is a distinct possibility, the clamour for Ed Miliband to be replaced could become deafening.

http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2011/05/12336/

[non sociopath skin]

1. While unknown writers in low-circulation mgazines are entitled to their opinions ...

... I'm not sure that we need give much too much weight to them.

The Skin

[T_i_B]

2. Not for the first time...

...I'm left wondering if Labour would be better off worrying about it's policies rather then it's personalities.

I'm far from won over by Ed Milliband, but Labour's problems go much deeper then one man.