Looking at Ed Miliband from a PR point of view

Above:  interesting articles by Patrick Wintour and Michael White (in the Guardian) and Rachel Sylvester (in The Times) discussing Ed Miliband's failure to make an impact as Labour Party Leader.  In many ways this criticism is unfair.  There is a huge amount of work to be done before Labour can develop a programme of new ideas to put before the electorate.  All leaders aspiring to fundamental change have to go through this "wilderness" phase (Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle even Ayatollah Kohmeini).  During this phase the emphasis has to be on purgation of unhelpful elements and the development of an integrated programme that includes at least nine completely original policies (less than nine looks light-weight, more than nine and you start to lose people).

There is evidence that the Conservatives are already engaged on a programme of reinvention, even while they are in office ("we are already planning for the next term").

Above:  looking at Ed Miliband from a PR point of view, there is little he can currently do to create an impact as leader of the Opposition.  This is because the role of Opposition has become increasingly usurped by the Liberal Democrats from within the Coalition.  Thus arguments against Coalition policies can be played out by disgruntled Lib Dems (and sometimes Conservatives), a faux row played out for the benefit of the media, and the policy adjusted (but not too much) to suggest the government is listening and responding.

I am unsure whether this is just the way things are happening or (this may be too machiavellian to be true) is deliberately being choreographed by David Cameron and Nick Clegg.