All is not well in Miliband's Labour Party

The Times reveals that despite continuing poll leads some of Ed Miliband’s flagship policies have been derided as catastrophic, pathetic and “wishy-washy” by Labour’s own grass roots.

They say that party branches have criticised policies on the economy, housing, welfare reform and education, as part of the party’s agenda review on the Your Britain website. These concerns, they say, echo remarks by Jon Cruddas, who is overseeing Labour’s policy review, who said this year that the party was focusing on “cynical” policies that “chime with focus groups”:

Labour’s economic proposals were described as “wishy-washy” by members in Oxford. They said that the party’s plans for fostering economic growth were “bland”. In a personal criticism of Mr Miliband’s decision to adopt the slogan “One Nation” to define his vision for Britain, they said that the phrase was “overused” and more associated with the Tories.

The Oxford East and Oxford West branches also attacked the party’s banking reforms. “Labour should commit forcefully to separating retail banking from riskier investment banking, not just having a ‘tough ring fence’,” they said. “Those are the sort of weasel words used by the coalition and we should avoid meaningless phrases.”

Members in Manchester Withington said that the party should “state more clearly that the crisis is not just a cost of living crisis, it’s an inequality crisis”. Ilford members, in Greater London, criticised the “Gove-type language” deployed to spell out its education policies, while Carol Hayton, a member who sits on the party’s national policy forum, said that Labour’s housing pledges were “hugely disappointing, if not catastrophic”.

Labour’s branch in Ulverston, Cumbria, criticised the party’s “pathetic” plans on welfare reform.

Can Labour win despite its policies and its much-derided leader? We will see.