Normally the default response in the Labour party to a rough couple of weeks is to blame the Shadow Cabinet. They’re not pulling together, they’re thinking about their own future leadership prospects rather than backing Ed Miliband and so on and so forth. But while the Shadow Cabinet is looking weak this week at their party conference, for once it is not their fault. They are standing under a banner that announces ‘Labour’s Plan for Britain’s Future’, but then say no more about that plan.
They are all being sent naked into the conference hall. All they are being required to talk about is their values, and what they have already announced. The first might be effective if the shadow ministers talking about their personal mission as Labourites gave the impression that they were excited by this mission. You are, after all, not talking to journalists but your party faithful, and if you don’t care about the message the journalists will communicate to voters, then you can stick to encouraging the people who will help you win the ground war in 2015.
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