Now or never for Ed Miliband

As the Doncaster North MP prepares for a conference speech that could make or break his party’s chances at the 2015 general election, he has to contend with the continuing fallout from the revelations by former Labour spin doctor Damian McBride, who he says he called on Gordon Brown to sack, which suggest the party remains riven by internal factions.

There is no comfort to be taken from the latest poll figures either, showing as they do that the Conservatives are now level-pegging with Labour for the first time in three years.

Meanwhile, last week’s gaffe by Yorkshire MEP Godfrey Bloom might well persuade existing Tory voters to stick with the party rather than defecting to Ukip, further handicapping Labour’s chances of an outright majority.

Then there is the fact that George Osborne’s austerity measures are now paying dividends in terms of delivering economic growth, with the general perception being that the Tory-led coalition is making a decent fist of clearing up the mess Labour left behind.

It is a context that places even further pressure on Mr Miliband as he prepares to set out his stall for becoming Prime Minister in 20 months’ time, not least as these headlines threaten to drown out those policy pronouncements – such as his vow to scrap the so-called ‘Bedroom Tax’ – that were designed to give his party some momentum going into its Brighton conference.

However, the biggest problem he faces is that the country still has little idea what he and Labour stand for. Mr Miliband talks of the coalition’s failure to ensure everyone shares in recovery, but doesn’t tell us how Labour will achieve this.

He insists he will create an economy that better rewards working people and raises their living standards, but doesn’t say where the money for this will be found, offering precious little detail on Labour’s plans for taxation and public spending.

While it is understandable that he does not wish to make his party a hostage to fortune or release too many of its best ideas too soon, there is a need to show that there is some substance behind these soundbites. Simply repeating the mantra “We’ll set out our position at the election” is no longer good enough.

Ed Miliband is a passionate politician. Yet it will take something quite extraordinary this week to convince the nation that Labour can once again be trusted and that he is ready to be our next Prime Minister.

An abhorrent act

PRIOR to its attack on a Kenyan shopping centre, the name al-Shabab was an unfamiliar one to many. The group’s cold-blooded slaughter of innocent men, women and children ensures it now has the notoriety it craves.

Amid all the hand-wringing over the situation in Syria, this atrocity is a reminder that the threat posed by al-Qaida and its affiliates – which include Somalia-based al-Shabab – remains all too real.

The bitter irony is that the terror attack on Nairobi comes at a time when the group’s fortunes are on the wane. It has lost control of Somalia’s key towns and cities and also has been weakened by reports of an internal power struggle.

With the capital Mogadishu and other towns now under government control, many Somalis have returned from exile, bringing their money and skills with them and raising hope that the country can now emerge from the rubble of two decades of fighting.

That is little comfort, of course, to those who have lost loved ones in what was an abhorrent act of terrorism.

The Kenyan authorities must learn lessons from this atrocity – not least given reports that militants often enter and leave the country without being intercepted. Al-Shabab’s fighters are even said to visit Nairobi for medical treatment.

The unpalatable truth, however, is that often there is little anyone can do to predict or prevent such indiscriminate attacks.

The only answer is to make sure that ongoing efforts to drive such groups to extinction are now redoubled.

Race to church

MOST brides spend the morning of their wedding making frantic final preparations for their big day.

Debs Feltwell, however, spent hers swimming through open water and then cycling and running for several miles through the Yorkshire countryside.

Having met fiance Jon Cooper at a triathlon some nine years ago, the couple felt taking part in the race organised by Yorkshire Olympians Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee would be a fitting way to mark the day of their nuptials.

Their participation prior to tying the knot was all the more remarkable for the fact that the new Mrs Cooper has this year endured a battle with cancer.

Credit to the couple for such a novel and energetic start to married life.

It is often said that marriage is a marathon rather than a sprint. In their case, however, perhaps triathlon would be closer to the mark. In any case, we wish them both well.