Labour have duly accepted Red Ed’s invitation to join his wild dream

Labour have done their very best to put a brave face on the result of their leadership race this week, but no matter how much they protest that they all love Ed and he is great, they all know they have made a dreadful mistake.

Ed gave a reasonable speech today in the circumstances. But was this a speech of a future prime minister? Even the most hardened of Labour supporters would have their doubts. Ed lacks gravitas, and while youthful looks can be a good thing, Ed recalls too much of a precocious child who has been promoted through the school years too quickly. In the speech there were some cringe-worthy moments where the conference simply failed to respond. This awkwardness was reminiscent of the Tory conference feigning their support of the ‘quiet man turning up the volume’.

This was certainly not the same feeling when David Cameron made his pulse-racing speech to the Conservative party conference in the Tory leadership race, nor was it the feeling when Tony Blair came on to the scene. Already, both of these men could be seen as future Prime Ministers.

Obviously, many on the left of the media have tried to make the best of Ed’s victory. Indeed, for the idealist left there is no doubt that this is good news. Ed can now truly represent the traditional left that New Labour neglected. This will hopefully mark a welcome return to the old dividing lines of British politics. The Tories were shoved off the middle ground for the best part of the last 15 years of politics by New Labour. Now at last, perhaps the Tories can start talking confidently about genuinely right wing policies without fearing that the electorate will run off to New Labour, who characteristically offered a conservative policy with better packaging (whether they delivered the product is quite another matter). The trouble is, for all its failings New Labour was very successful and appealing to the electorate.

Of course, Labour’s leadership result reflects a split between MPs and members in one camp, and the unions in the other. The difficulty for Ed is leading a party where the majority of his own MPs didn’t want him. Encapsulating his predicament today, he tried to neutralise the unions by denouncing ‘irresponsible strikes’ to which one union member leader shouted ‘rubbish!’. Presumably, he was in favour of strikes whether they are irresponsible or not.

It is widely accepted that this is a good result for Cameron; Matthew d’Ancona even led his Sunday Telegraph column with “Labour has handed David Cameron the next election.” However, this is perhaps a little presumptuous. British politics, compared to a few years ago, is wide open, and as a coalition with the Lib Dems a second time round is unlikely, the Tories still have a lot to do to win a majority. Still, even with all this there is no getting away from the feeling that Ed will not be the man to lead Labour to victory.

In his speech on Saturday evening, Ed said never in his wildest dreams had he imagined being leader of his party. I fear that this is precisely the trouble. He lacks credibility as a leader because he didn’t really believe he was going to be. The sad reality for Labour is that they are now in a wild dream of the idealist left, with no prospect of electability.