One of the media narratives that will blight Labour's hopes for a fourth term will be speculation about the leadership race that is widely expected to follow any General Election defeat. David Miliband – not for the first time – was the focus of speculation in the Boxing Day edition of The Times.
Whenever a minister announces a policy it will be seen through the prism of this race. That is exactly how Fraser Nelson has interpreted Ed Balls' attempt to relaunch Labour's approach to families.
Meanwhile the newest of new Labour ministers are fighting Labour's lurch to the left under Gordon Brown. Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell has publicly urged Gordon Brown to drop his class war attacks on the Conservatives:
"I hope that our campaign, and I believe it will be, will be a decent campaign which is engaging the British people in a conversation, not a hideous to and fro of personality attack. I don't think anybody can be responsible for the school they went to. Most people don't give it a thought for one day to the next whether Eton exists. I don't think this should be an election campaign about the 1960s intake to Eton, or whatever it was, I really don't. This should not be a sort of head on personality clash between David Cameron and Gordon Brown. It should be a proper and intelligent debate."
More in The Sunday Telegraph.
Tim Montgomerie