Lets be honest its been a disappointing time for the left. Although the far left has made some headway in the European elections for many on the centre left and centre right it has been a sobering time the last few years. Support has fallen for many in the centre but it seems to be highlighted for those on the left especially given how the neo-liberal status quo has often been criticised and seen as out of favour (http://www.forbes.com/sites/stratfor/2014/06/04/europes-deep-right-wing-logic/).
Many in the Labour party in Britain has seen what was a significant poll lead decline in recent months, many attribute this to the party having a distinct lack of policies, other to leadership issues in the shape of Ed Miliband (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/23/crisis-labour-party-ed-miliband).Furthermore there has until recently been a dearth of policies and the opposition leader has been criticised for lack of clarity over Labour economic policy as well as pressure on the immigration and welfare agendas (http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/30/ed-miliband-must-show-business-labour-not-anti-industry).
So why is this a problem? For Labour the issue seems to the whilst the conservatives has had a hard time in the polls due to the ascent of UKIP ,there has not been the windfall they had hoped for in the local and European election in May (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22382098).The lead they had gained over the cost of living agenda appears to be disippating whilst many on the left in regions such as the North -East (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/24/labour-ukip-appeal-to-angry-white-voters). Despite the losses that the incumbent government faced this would not be sufficent to deliver a majority if these were to be repeated at the 2015 general election.
Some have blamed the stance on immigration and took issue with the last governments stance on multiculturalism with te result of earlier this year Mr Miliband taking a rightward stance on the issue in response to pressure (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9808290/Labour-got-it-wrong-on-immigration-admits-Miliband.html, http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/482008/Labour-is-clueless-on-immigration-admits-Labour-MP).
Yet despite all this there are misgivings about whether he could lead the country or generate a sufficent number of votes nessecary to deliver an overall majority. Evidently there are some good policies such as the idea from Ed Balls of increasing the number of houses being built as is the proposal to regulate private landlords.However there have also been other populist measures such as the new youth training allowance which proposes to replace JSA or Jobeseekers with vocational training for 18 to 21 year olds ,which has had at best a mixed if not negative response(https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/07/01/yout-j01.html).
There has been speculation that this is somewhat due to the leader of the opposition and questions about a replacement should he fail next year. The main problem however is one of vision in which the Conservatives sucessfully blamed the last Labour government for the economics woes of the country despite thie last few years being precipitated by a worldwide economic crisis and exarcebated by austerity and the European financial crisis surrounding the Eurozone. Also UKIP have succeeded in seizing the agenda on immigration and Europe, pulling all the major parties rightward.
This suggest that whilst Milliband may want to appeal to the core vote he will have to also appeal to those outside the left to win office as Brtian is traditionally governed from the centre albeit centre-left or centre-right. However if as in the New Labour years he tries for only appeal to the centre floating or strategic voter he risks further alienating those who have in the past gone to UKIP and other parties seen as the parties of protest.
What is needed is are policies yes, but possibly new ideas and above all a coherent vision of what the party stands for and what this means for general public and the prospective Labour voter.
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