Ed Miliband cartoon

The Labour leader is squeezed in the middle and unable to move either left or right by the unions and the Blairite elephants. For Tribune Magazine by Gary Barker

The leader of the opposition, famously beating his brother to the top job, finds himself with little room to manoeuvre pressured from both right and left factions within the party. The Blarites still stinging at the failure of their man to take the top job apply pressure in the media and behind the scened whenever he may even look to moving the party back to a more traditional centre from the right of centre position it has occupied for much of the last two decades. While on the left the unions, whose support did much get him elected, apply pressure for him to move back to the centre and maybe beyond to the pre New Labour days. Many unions have now withdrawn their funding for the party in protest at what they see as its pbsession with appearing pro-business which they also suggest is anti-workforce. All of which leave him hamstrung and not really pleasing anyone while taking a stance just marginally to the left of the Conservatives.