There is a time and a place for candid public advice to the leader’s office about how they should be running their comms/policy/electoral strategy. The time: midnight. The date: 31 June. The place: the land of Far, Far Away.

That’s right. There is absolutely no service provided to party or country by all this blethering and mithering about Ed’s strategy. Here’s a brief guide to rebutting the nutty:

‘We should have a 40 per cent strategy!’

You might as well say we should have a time machine strategy. It’s at least as plausible. 2001 was the last time any political party in the United Kingdom got more than 40 per cent of the vote. And you know what? Tony Blair isn’t coming back any time soon. (Though, to be fair, the whingers are pretty consistent. They hated those 150-seat majorities – ‘Comrade, you can be too popular’).

‘But we should be further ahead at this point in the electoral cycle!’

I refer you to my previous point. Blair has gone – and it is to Ed’s great credit that he has no intention of trying to be a pale copy of Blair. Look how much good that has done for David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Indeed, it is the fragmentation of UK politics that their beleaguered plight has created that has Labour and the Tories fighting it out for their share of the 70 per cent of voters.

‘The next election is all about the economy and Miliband’

Now we can start to agree. This is classic ‘head vs heart’ territory. The cost-of-living crisis is about how voters feel. The Tory response is about how they should feel. In conflicts like that feelings trump fact. Advantage Miliband.

The issue of leadership is different. When the question is posed as ‘who looks most prime ministerial’ then Cameron wins. He should do. Oddly, he’s actually the prime minister. But everyone who knows Cameron knows that his authority is the flip-side of his arrogance. I am not saying that is bad in itself. After all, he is the prime minister of the United Kingdom. But Cameron’s problem is that he is inclined to tell voters to ‘rejoice’. He excels in instruction not empathy. Miliband cannot compete on this turf. He is just not up himself enough to do so. He will never tell a voter what to think. Once again, he has to compete on emotional intelligence – heart not head.

‘It’s time for spear-chuckers’

I agree with Damian McBride’s recent blog. Not just with his view that politics is a contact sport and that you should never take a knife to a gunfight. But also with two of his significant observations. First, that the discipline of the Tory field operations team is not matched by an increasingly fractious cabinet.

Second, and his most significant, yet under-reported, observation – that every week from now until May will have a winner, and further: ‘If no-one appears to have won the week, then the winner is the party whom the status quo serves best, in terms of current public sentiment and voting intentions. I’d say that’s Labour.’

In summary, do us all a favour. Next time you feel like popping a slip in the online suggestion box that is the internet, pick up a spear instead and throw it at the Tories. You’ll feel better. I’ll feel better. We’ll all feel better.

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Well, it’s all over. The World Cup that is. At least among England fans, among whom – as a patriotic Scot – I count myself. We can all pick other teams with whom we have an affiliation. Unfortunately for me, the best World Cup performances ever by the Socceroos have not been enough to get Australia beyond the group stage. So, for me, in memory of Victor Jara it has to be Chile.

Whichever team you choose to support there is one book you should have by your side through the tournament – Jim Murphy’s ‘The 10 Football Matches That Changed The World… And the One That Didn’t’ (Biteback). Going further even than Bill Shankly, Murphy argues that football makes and shapes history. It is a powerful argument, entertainingly argued. There are fresh facts and new insights on every page. It’s a riveting read with something in it for everyone.

And fittingly, if sadly, in this centenary of the first world war, the match that didn’t change history was during the Christmas truce of 1914. That was the prelude to catastrophic slaughter on both sides, and appropriately Murphy dedicates his book to the memory of the volunteers in that war. A great read.

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John McTernan is former political secretary at 10 Downing Street and was director of communications for former prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard. He writes The Last Word column on Progress and tweets @johnmcternan

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Photo: Jimmy Baikovicius