i Editor's Letter: What must Ed do to become PM?

I had that voter in the back of my cab once... Norway’s prime minister has been moonlighting as a taxi driver, disguised in sunglasses and uniform, to get the public to share their views with him (page 19).

None of Jens Stoltenberg’s passengers was charged for the ride, which is just as well considering the standard of his driving – the PM mistook the automatic car’s brake pedal for the clutch.

Ed Miliband returns this week from a well-deserved family holiday in France to face a mini-mutiny and criticism of Labour’s invisibility with voters over the past month – traditionally a good time for HM Opposition to kick chunks out of the Government.

The Shadow Cabinet is guilty of an “almost deafening silence” according to one former whip (page 6), showing little initiative or policy coherence, and desperately needs a “big beast” such as ...Peter Mandelson. One of the most energetic shadow ministers, Andy Burnham, warned over the weekend that it will soon be time for Miliband’s Labour to “put its cards on the table”.

When Labour was in power, the Conservatives used the luxury of opposition well – that space afforded you to blunder quietly and to learn; for shadow ministers to monster their briefs and make life miserable for the flagging incumbents on the Government’s frontbench. With the roles reversed, Labour’s would-be Cabinet still have much to do.

Ed Miliband, the stubborn defier of low expectations, has six weeks until the biggest speech of his short tenure. His team must start to answer more of voters’ questions. How would Labour reduce the deficit and attain economic credibility? What are its policies on housing, education and welfare? How would it tackle the pensions timebomb and pay for an NHS choked by inflation and runaway PFI contracts?

What do you think Ed Miliband must do to become Prime Minister?

i@independent.co.uk

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