Ed is the real threat

THREE weeks ago, Ed Miliband launched Labour’s supposedly agenda- setting summer campaign, titled ‘The Choice – the Labour future/the Tory threat’.

Since then, the following speeches have been delivered by his shadow cabinet ‘big hitters’: Yvette Cooper on law and order, Andy Burnham on the NHS, Ed Balls on the economy, Emma Reynolds on housing, Rachel Reeves on social security, Liz Kendall on social care, Maria Eagle on the environment, Chuka Ummuna and Miss Reeves on the economy (again), and Sadiq Khan on prisons. Mr Burnham’s posturing promise to halt the use of private firms by the Health Service attracted mild applause from Left-wing unions.

But much of the rest of it was desperately pointless.

For an opposition facing a Government that has been forced to make tough decisions on the economy this is a dismal position to be in, just nine months before the General Election. Of course, the main reason Red Ed is finding life so hard is that he remains on the wrong side of every argument. The Two Eds – Miliband and Balls – gambled everything on arguing that the only path to recovery was more borrowing, more debt and more public spending.

Yet, far from being wrecked by a Tory Party, ONS figures show the UK’s economy is performing better than any other G7 country.

Even on the most thorny issue of clawing back powers from the EU there are grounds for optimism.

The Tories still face a huge battle if they are to win the next election.

But, with Ed Miliband and his hopelessly lacklustre shadow cabinet stood in the opposite corner, all things are possible.