The Tories hope that the next election will be a rerun of 1992, when voters were persuaded to hold on to nurse for fear of something worse. John Major’s case was helped by Neil Kinnock. Voters didn’t think Labour’s leader was prime ministerial or could be trusted to navigate treacherous economic waters. Today’s opinion polls suggest that Ed Miliband is dogged by similar perceptions.
It’s an unfair comparison. Neil Kinnock was a far superior servant of his party. The man who fell into the sea on the day he became leader. Who was so verbose that he let Margaret Thatcher off the hook in the Westland crisis. Who, because of an insufferably cocky performance at an infamous Sheffield rally, handed the Tories an historic, fourth