Badabing! Another day, another former fan of Ed gives their damning assessment of the Labour leader. Jenni Russell’s critique, headlined “Ed and his team would be a disaster at No 10”, is particularly cutting given the Times specifically hired her as a Miliband sympathising columnist. Tonight, she sleeps with the fishes:

“When the Labour party found that it had elected Ed as leader, even the doubters hoped that he would be transformed from awkward chrysalis to confident butterfly. He hasn’t done it. Nearly four years on… he doesn’t exude competence, and charisma eludes him. His personal ratings have ben falling steadily and now stand at -39, a record low. Only a fifth of voters think he is doing a good job; three fifths say he isn’t. Mr Cameron scores far better at -5.”

Accusing him of “arrogant indifference” and warning of the “stifling sterility of Mr Miliband’s lack of interest” in radical ideas, Russell concludes:

“This strategy might just win Mr Miliband the election, but it is a hopeless strategy for government. A leader who can’t inspire confidence, build alliances or enthuse his colleagues will fall apart in No 10. One shadow minister told me that there was little time left to change. He was afraid of losing, but winning might be worse.”

‘What some of us fear is that we’re going to win, but Ed could be such a terrible leader we’ll be out for a generation after that.’”

The real stinger comes in the fact that – as revealed by the Staggers in 2010 – Miliband is the godfather to Russell’s child. Perhaps it really is time for Ed to find a wartime consigliere…