Today’s Times reports that:

‘As Ed Miliband prepares to face Britain’s voters for the first time next month, he talks of a Labour Party that is not so much one colour as positively kaleidoscopic.

‘He appears relaxed by the news, revealed in The Times this week, that leading new Labour figures are compiling a “Purple Book” of modernising policies to pressure him into reform. So relaxed, in fact, that he is writing the foreword himself. He is also showing interest in the “blue Labour” tract of the social activist and academic Maurice Glasman, now Lord Glasman after he was elevated to the peerage by Mr Miliband. This criticises the party for putting too much faith in the state and losing sight of “flag, faith and family”, the core values of its traditional base.

‘”Purple Labour, blue Labour,” says Mr Miliband as he heads for a day’s campaigning in Wales. “I would be tempted to say, let a thousand flowers bloom,” he smiles. “But that’s not a particularly appropriate historical analogy.”” 

‘The Purple Book, so-called to draw comparisons with the Orange Book of Liberal Democrat modernisers, could have posed a problem for his authority. He has solved that by embracing the whole project as part of the wide-ranging debate on Labour’s future.

‘The aftermath of John Smith’s death in 1994 was the last time this was properly discussed, he believes. “I’m totally encouraging of this,” he adds.’