Time isn't on Labour's side, but do they realise that?
Of all the things said this week in the wake of the Alan Johnson resignation, it was a comment by Douglas Alexander which summed things up best.
Now shadow foreign secretary, Alexander was one of the architects of the Labour election campaign. I believe history should judge that the campaign wasn't a total failure. After all, Labour was in theory on its knees, yet David Cameron couldn't pull an overall majority out of the ballot box. Historians can decide whether that was more to do with a Tory failing or Labour being more in tune with supporters than the media would have had us believe at the time.
Since the re-shuffle this week, a lot has been made about the arrival of Ed Balls as shadow chancellor. Those in the Westminster bubble believe this is George Osborne's worst nightmare. Johnson's openness in needing 'an economic primer' set the Tories on a path towards discrediting Johnson as a financial lightweight at every turn. They can't say that with Balls, but they can point out how closely tied he was to the previous Brown economic policy.
Ah, Labour will say, that was then, we're now rethinking all our policies. It's Ed Miliband's blank sheet of paper all over again. That's fine on one level, but it opens up a much bigger question: What does Labour stand for.
And that's where Alexander comes in. Speaking on Andrew Marr today, Alexander said it wasn't enough for Labour to be indignant in opposition, it had to actually provide an alternative.
For all its opposition to tuition fees rises, council cuts, Whitehall redundancies, the axing of EMA and NHS reform, Labour has not been able to say: "Here's what we'd do instead."
Miliband may well see this as playing a long-game, short-term pain for long-term strategy which will see Labour return to power in 2015. But the problem is that now is the time for an alternative opposition. People opposed to cuts will only accept the support of a political party if that actually constructively try to do something to halt the policy being opposed.
On a local level, if an opposition councillor doesn't want his local library to shut, he wouldn't just say so. He'd organise opposition, support others opposing it and spend his time trying to find a reason to save it. In other words, a good local councillor will have a plan.
Labour doesn't have a plan at the moment. That said, neither did the Tories after Cameron came to power. But Cameron had the relative luxury of calm political waters. Labour is in opposition in very different times.
The problem with having a leader whose background is as a party policy wonk is that he'll want to spend time devising policy. Faced with a government which is proving to be very fleet of foot, there isn't the time to agonise over the details. Until Miliband realises that, he's failing his party and failing the country. Listening to Douglas Alexander would be a good start.
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David Higgerson - David Higgerson has covered local and national politics for much of his career as a journalist. This blog aims to look at Westminister from the outside in, at a time when it appears very few are looking out from the inside.
I really can't see Ed Milliband leading Labour to power come the next election, and I can't see him being the leader of the LP for much longer either. He does look as if he's just emerged from a Sixth Form debating society - and with no coherent alternative plan, saying that we must learn from our mistakes and we are not the party of Gordon Brown is not adequate to excite the public.