Rebuilding Labour

Ed Miliband's pledge to stand up for the "squeezed middle" is a sensible gesture. The coalition's harsh spending cuts, which are already being felt in this region with the abolition of Yorkshire Forward, will pile more pressure on professional workers, who toil under the weight of tax rises introduced in the final years of the Labour government.

With a policy review about to begin, this will not be the only shift in Labour strategy. The Doncaster North MP has been quicker than some of his colleagues to accept that their party really was turfed out of office in May, even if David Cameron failed to clinch an outright victory. Labour has to renew itself and, with the next General Election not likely to be held for four-and-half years, there is no point in rushing out policies now to attract headlines.

With that in mind, however, Mr Miliband should be more careful when it comes to emotive issues like the mass student protests over rising tuition fees. Although he was right to condemn violence and threatening behaviour, he managed to make himself look both opportunistic and vacillating by saying he was tempted to join the marches before deciding he had to "do something else". This is not a tenable position.

So far, however, Mr Miliband's remarks as leader have shown more awareness than Mr Brown, his onetime mentor, of the fundamental shift away from the far left over the last 30 years. The trade unions may have brought Mr Miliband to the top of his own party but on their own they can take him no further. He must fight the coalition from the middle ground.