A line needs to be drawn

Charismatic Tory wartime leader Winston Churchill sneered at his Labour counterpart Clem Attlee in the 1945 general election for his personal modesty, taunting him for having "a lot to be modest about."

This didn't prevent Attlee from leading Labour to a landslide victory over the old imperialist.

Labour won because it pledged no return to mass unemployment, introduction of the NHS and a welfare state and a campaign to rebuild Britain's industry, housing and schools.

The electorate ignored Tory pleas to vote for "the man who won the war," convinced of the need for concrete policies in the interests of the vast majority of the people.

New Labour spin doctors, who painted Tony Blair as uniquely capable of winning general elections, remain wedded to this approach of image over substance even after his pro-business and pro-war policies and obsession with personal self-enrichment created a legacy of popular disenchantment with Labour.

They retain too much influence in the party, prevailing on Miliband to equate predatory asset-stripping companies with "non-contributing" or simply jobless council tenants.

The primary qualification to be offered local authority accommodation is homelessness not abstract points systems to distinguish between deserving and undeserving poor.

And the main problem with council housing is that there is too little of it as a result of the Tory right-to-buy policy and new Labour's failure to embark on a campaign to build more public housing for rent.

The land barons, construction companies, estate agents and banks are happy with housing shortages because the situation means higher profits for them.

Labour has to choose between an approach based on human need and its opposite that prioritises corporate profit.

This dilemma was exemplified by the conference debate on energy when shadow energy and climate change secretary Meg Hillier made the right noises about the Big 6 energy companies' arrogant abuse of power.

But she must know that her pledges to increase the number of players in the market and to force energy companies to be crystal clear in their pricing structures are empty promises.

If energy firms were not able to pull the wool over consumers' eyes on pricing, only one, the company offering cheapest prices, would survive as the rest would lose all their customers.

This confirms that utilities such as gas, electricity and water are natural monopolies.

Competition is a myth to cover up the reality behind privatisation - that the Tories introduced it to help their City friends to get their hands on public services, sell off profitable assets and exploit consumers who cannot survive without these essential services.

Returning these services to public ownership and operating them in a co-ordinated way rather than forcing them to compete with each other is the best way to stabilise and reduce prices.

Renationalisation won't win Labour any plaudits from either the City or the Tory media, but both special interests have shown what kind of government they prefer.

Miliband and the party should draw a definitive line under the new Labour aberration, drawing closer to the trade unions and the policies they advocate as the best means of enthusing the millions of people currently disenchanted with politics.