Last week’s Labour party conference didn’t go well. “On the evidence of this subdued assembly, just seven months from the next general election, Labour has little to smile about,” says The Economist.
“Labour people like their amiable, decent leader”, but the fact is that “few are enthusiastic about going into battle for such an uninspiring and… ridiculed politician”.
The mood at the conference was “unusually flat” and “there was little sense of optimism among the delegates”, according to the New Statesman. Although Miliband is a “determined and ethical leader”, there are concerns that “he is failing to connect with the wider electorate”.
As a result, it looks like we “are moving inexorably towards a hung parliament”. However,“unlike the Conservatives who are divided and crisis stricken”, Labour is at least “united”.
Although the Labour conference was a “rather flat and tired affair”, there were still “plenty of people with plenty of plausible explanations as to why Labour will win the most seats next May”, says Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer.
It looks like Labour is relying on “Ukip to do continuing damage to the Tories”, while trying to hang on “to the voters who have fled to them from the Lib Dems”. It isn’t terribly ambitious; it isn’t very pretty; it might be enough.
However, Labour loyalists thought that Ed Miliband’s conference speech “was a flop”, according to Adam Boulton in The Sunday Times. Some of the policies that Miliband outlined run the risk “of driving agnostics away”.
Labour should not assume that a core vote strategy will be enough. The polls suggest that “56% of those who have switched from the Tories already say they would consider going back in May” if the Conservatives can convince them they will soon benefit from the economic recovery. What’s more, “polls tend to overestimate Labour and underestimate the Conservatives”.