Let’s deal quickly with the elections. This is the beginning of real four-party politics across the country – five-party in Wales and Scotland who have Plaid and the Scottish National party. This is unprecedented, so any arguments based on precedent are worthless.

So forget it when people say Labour should be doing better at this point in the electoral cycle. There is no comparator in the past. When they say no opposition party has lost the European elections since 1984, point out that Tony Blair never won a European election – and it did not do him much harm. And observe that this is the first time ever that the Tories have come third in a national election.

The interesting results are in the local elections where notional general election results can be compiled from council wards. Put Amber Valley, Cambridge, Hornsey and Wood Green and Ilford North in the Labour column.

Long story short, the locals show Labour sweeping London, the United Kingdom Independence party replacing the Tories as a poor second in the north and the Lib Dems dying everywhere. Not a bad night’s work.

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Theresa May is getting heaps of praise for her performance at the Police Federation conference. And, yes, she was tough and forthright in telling the Fed some home truths. They were on the ground and she did what any politician should do faced by an opponent in such a position – she kicked them in the head fiercely and repeatedly. It is always a pleasure to see political violence inflicted professionally, so even I could raise one cheer.

But, buried in her speech was an attack on the fundamentals of trade unionism. May is going to end check off for the Police Federation. This has long been a dream of the right – to end automatic collection of union dues and force unions to collect them individually. Tories believe, and unions agree, that this will lead to a decline in membership. Combined with an assault on facility time – the hours an employer allows union reps to do union work – this is an attempt to set a precedent for the entire public service.

If check off is successfully ended for the cops you can be sure it will not stop there. Instead, it will be used as a precedent. There will be no more talk of the exceptional circumstances or the decline in public confidence. It will simply be an argument that what works for the police would be fine for teachers, nurses and firefighters.

The Tories have a systematic programme of running down public institutions. They have used Mid Staffs to stigmatise the NHS, Jimmy Saville to smear the BBC and now ‘plebgate’ to undermine the police. The Tories do not do this out of high-mindedness but low cunning. A public service with a beleaguered management and workforce and a battered reputation is in no fit state to fight off cuts or privatisation. That is the real game. The Police Federation need defending as well as reforming. Solidarity forever.

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Finally, one of the least appetising aspects of the last few weeks has been the emergence of the off-the-record briefing against Ed Miliband.

Let’s get a few things straight. First, that ‘bacon butty’ picture was bullying plain and simple. No one looks elegant when eating. Was it taken to expose a real truth? No. It was designed to humiliate. That sort of practice should be denounced for what it is.

Second, those who argue that Labour has no offer and no strategy should come clean. There is an offer and a strategy – they just do not agree with them. There is a world of difference. This was the first Labour European election I know that has had policy content. Quicker access to GPs. Longer tenancies. Lower rents. All good and all retail. Not random announcements but ones tied to the overall plan of attacking on cost of linking pressures but linking emblematic policies to longer term structural reform. A richer, fairer Britain is the aim.

In the end, of course the party will have to work much harder to win the next election. We are in a grinding battle to recover from one of our worst ever election defeats. But think of this: in Tory central office they are looking at a map of Britain and they cannot see a single Labour seat they would win on the basis of the locals; in Miliband’s office they can see a fistful of Tory and Liberal seats that are now in our grasp.

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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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