Are we being bold? Are we? I’ve recounted my hatred of boldness as a political value in this column, but I fear I am fighting a losing battle.

Labour commentators turned the boldness up to 11 this week, when Ed Miliband proposed extending new rental contracts to three years, limiting rent increases within those contracts to an as-yet undetermined level, and banning upfront charges from letting agents.

These moves on rents were condemned by Grant Shapps as Venezuelan-style socialism, and the idiocy of that charge did little more than confirm the open-mouthed idiocy of the Tory chair. This is a man who fears a bludgeon is too subtle and delicate a tool so decides to swing a hammer at his own foot.

Oddly, though, the proposal was met by a centre-left reaction so equally out of proportion to the policy that one could have been forgiven for thinking Shapps had a point. This is a victory for ‘radical labour’ claimed Marcus Roberts of the Fabians. George Eaton of the New Statesman was told that Sadiq Khan had won a victory over the ‘forces of conservatism’ inside the party. I could go on, but you get the picture. To the advocates of the centre-left, this policy is a game-changer, a signal of radical intent, of a broad sweep of predistributive ambition. A victory for the big idea over the shrunken offer.

Well, to adapt Shakespeare, there is nothing bold or timid, but briefing makes it so. Politicians rarely see the advantage in arguing that their policy shift is a limited one that will impact the marketplace only at the margins.

So I thought it was more revealing how Labour responded to Grant Shapps’ idiocy. Emma Reynolds, a smart and observant politician, immediately responded that the Tories were making a terrible mistake: Eric Pickles had advocated longer tenancies to improve the security of tenants, and was now abandoning that commitment. Good point well made.

Hold on, though. If the government was proposing longer tenancies last year, is our position the bold, radical position we are briefing it out as? Because, I may be completely off my chump here, but my general sense of politics is that if Pickles would do something it is probably not the end of the market economy as we know it. Plus, we have promised exemptions for students, people who want short-term lets, and so on.

Ah, but what about the cap on rent increases? That is new. Well, the data suggests capping rents for existing tenancies will probably not affect that many households (at least, not if the cap is not very tight). As for banning upfront charges, that is an effective and useful reform, probably less fundamentally transformative as setting up the tenancy deposit scheme, a great dull Labour success story. After all, getting ripped off on your deposit is a bigger risk than being charged an upfront fee.

It is perfectly possible to salute Labour’s new policy as a welcome and useful step, without implying it is the greatest advance for socialism since the October Revolution. The same is true of much of Labour’s ‘cost-of-living contract’ – sensible, limited changes to make life a bit better for people.

Yet, if you portray such changes as a rebirth of social radicalism, you invite the sort of Shappsian idiocy we then revile as distorting luncay when it appears in the Mail. Tell people you are going to rip up the rulebook, and they might just believe you are an anarchist, even if you are really just proposing to amend section 37 (b) and making a sensible adjustment to standing orders, subject to consultation …

When I was at school, I got my mum to buy me a black shirt from M&S so I could look like a goth at parties. Sometimes, when I read our press releases and speeches, I feel like that teenage boy again, remembering how important it seemed to convince people I was edgy and dangerous.

After years of hanging round the edges of nightclubs, striking faintly risible poses, I came to terms with the fact I was not in Fields of the Nephelim. That I was not, by a long chalk, very edgy, or dangerous.

Nor is the Labour party, really. It’s just we really want people to believe we are. I do wish we’d stop.