Ed’s Very Big Week

Fairness demands one acknowledge this has been Ed Miliband’s best week since he became Labour leader. James’s piece in this week’s edition of the magazine explains why in typically fine fashion. He concludes:

There’s undoubtedly something different about Miliband now: more swagger, more conviction. His adept handling of this crisis and his successful parliamentary gamble have shaken the confidence of the Tories. Being the first party leader to take on Murdoch and threaten to win is no mean feat. But can he keep it up? He wonders if this current drama will turn out to be just ‘a couple of weeks when the world looks like it has turned upside down and then the world goes back to normal and everybody is like, what was all that fuss about?’

Indeed. Given that the public had a low opinion of journalists anyway, much of this affair serves to confirm their existing prejudices. (Next: estate agents are spivs! Who knew?) In theory, as James says, Miliband should benefit from a first-mover advantage in this game but while the press and political classes are obsessed by Murdochiana it’s not evident the general public are similarly preoccupied.

Nevertheless, Miliband looks a bigger man now than he did last week. One can see how this could be the beginnig of a new story for him. The trouble, however, is that the most obvious “narrative” to be built from this is a kind of Shrumian populism that it’s difficult to see Miliband quite being able to carry off. “The people vs the powerful” hasn’t often worked for the left in recent decades (Ted Kennedy, Kinnock, Gore and Kerry all tried it) but in a post-financial crisis era and with the eurozone in danger of imminent meltdown one can sketch an outline of a refreshed, perhaps more plausible, version of that familiar tune.

Meanwhile, I’ve a quick piece up at Foreign Policy guessing at what yesterday’s events may mean.