Three things that Labour need to change in the very short term

Here's my (outsider's view of) three things that Labour needs to do in the very short term: 1. They need to realise that British society has changed fundamentally in both composition and outlook over the past twenty years. The vote winning policies of the 1990s and of the early part of this century may no longer be as appealing. The Back To The Future people who believe it's a shortcut to the electoral popularity enjoyed by Blair need to be convinced that they are wrong. 2. They need to develop, over the next couple of years, a clear set of policies that differentiate them from the Conservatives. The May result demonstrates that people aren't interested in an alternative that's simply a 'kinder' version of what is already on offer. They need to have two or three really big ideas that are simple to understand and which would have an effect (positive effect) on the lives of the majority of the voters. Ending non-dom status for tax purposes or a Mansion tax aren't such a policies, they are niche, difficult to understand and have a minimal effect. A majority of those who voted in May (including a fairly large number who voted Conservative) are in favour of taking the rail network back into public, not-for-profit ownership. A commitment to re-nationalise public transport on a not-for-profit basis is a good example of the sort of big, easy to understand policy that the Conservatives would never dream of adopting. The fact that so much of Osborne's Budget yesterday could easily have come from the Miliband/Balls manifesto demonstrates the lack of difference between the two main parties that the voters found so difficult to get past in May. The Scottish Parliament Elections and the Euro referendum are early opportunities to demonstrate that they are able to come up with a singular position that offers something which no other party is. 3. They need to accept that their best route back to power is almost certainly through coalition. To this end they need to learn to work with the other opposition parties at Westminster where there is a shared end result. They need to accept the reality that, although only a round a third of those eligible to vote in May supported the Conservatives (meaning that nearly two-thirds can be assumed to be opposed or at least not in favour) Labour's share of that oppositional two-thirds was fairly small. There's a large number of people who don't want to vote for the Conservatives but aren't convinced by Labour : Labour needs to understand it's role in this informal coalition and stop sneering and bullying those within and outside the Party (& inside and outside Westminster) who wear different badges but are essentially on the same side. The old structure of centrally driven command and control within the party also needs to be abandoned. CLPs and union branches need to be given the freedom to pursue their own agendas at a local level and build networks of support which the national party will undoubtedly benefit from at Election time. Also : remove the focus on the Party leader - we don't have a Presidential system and the voters would certainly respond well to a shadow Cabinet that was better known to them and who were frequently on television discussing their areas of special responsibility rather than channelling all comment through one person (especially if that one person has the ability to polarise public opinion for abstract, rather than political, reasons). The beauty of these three things is that they can be done quickly and cheaply - the danger is that a failure to act very soon will allow the Conservatives to once again shape the narrative of a parliamentary term consigning Labour to another defeat in 2020 or even (worst case scenario, but certainly a possibility) ceasing to exist in its current form before or shortly after that date.