There is a lot of space to Labour's left. Flickr/Habeebee. Some rights reserved.
In a few days, Ed Miliband should be on his way to becoming Prime Minister. This is not a foregone conclusion: it could be that the ‘shy Tory’ factor comes through, or that the UKIP vote swings back to the Tories, or that tactical voting between the two coalition parties comes out hard on polling day, or that the recent polls putting the Tories 5 points ahead are a genuine last-minute breakthrough. But by and large, the polls and factors of recent weeks have offered not so much a trajectory to the campaign as an oscillation – and inside that oscillation, the chances are that Labour will be the only party capable of negotiating a parliamentary majority.
The slow death of Blairism
Unlike the last time that Labour came to power in the wake of an unpopular Tory government, there are few, if any, popular leftwing illusions in the prospect of an Ed Miliband premiership; the space to the left of the Labour leadership is wide open and mobilised. Some of this fact can be seen in the rise of party-political alternatives to Labour, in the SNP and the Greens, but the really significant process is happening at a lower level – in social movements and the wider labour movement.
