We hate Labour and we need Labour

You have, of course, read the best article of 2014:

Labour’s message to the electorate is clear – austerity is the new reality but we’re nicer than the Tories. Berks. I hate Labour more than I did when Blair was in charge, squinting into the distance, joshing with America, socialising with the Murdochs. At least he believed in neo-liberalism. The current Loyal Opposition half-believe, but also half-yearn to reconnect to the movement that sustains them, which is half-decent of them I must say. The first clear chance for years to differentiate themselves, to renounce austerity and commit to a genuine Labour manifesto, sod the Mail, renationalise, reunionise, tax the rich, protect the poor, FIGHT FOR THE WORKING CLASS WHICH IS TECHNICALLY THEIR FUCKING PURPOSE and all they can offer is the Vegetarian Option. — Ian Martin Ian Martin on Labour: I can’t remember a more spineless opposition

I’ve always voted Labour and I joined the party in 2010. You can guess why, and everything I feared would happen has happened, only worse.

But it’s hard getting excited by the same old balancing the budget bollocks and a minimum wage of £8 an hour in six years. Express it all in tortuous language (worklessness and Labour’s Plan For Britain’s Future, my God) and you have a Labour party nearly as unattractive as the Tories. I say nearly, but then there’s Gove and Ian Nosferatu Smith (sorry, I had to nick that).

So we should demand more. And if we can’t demand more after the collapse of the whole banking system, 172 years of austerity and the bedroom tax, when can we?

But then you think rationally. Perhaps Miliband et al aren’t simply lacking balls (sorry). They’re just being smart. After all, the election will be won in a small number of swing seats. The media is virulently right wing. The only chance they (sorry, we) have of winning is by playing the game well – by keeping disciplined, triangulating etc.

Who knows? Sometimes the Tories seem so hellbent on not being electable you think it must be worth risking proposing something straightforward, controversial and of some actual use. Or is it simply a case of in Ed we trust and trying to change things from the inside?