Research on the PoliticsHome website shows that people think that Labour is divided, corrupt and - most importantly - doesn't know what it stands for.
As I have said elsewhere, it is the lack of clear purpose and vision rather than the lack of policy initiatives which lead to this conclusion and it is the conclusion which will be the most damaging to Labour at the next election. Of course, people don't expect Labour politicians to be financially corrupt and it challenges the perceived wisdom when a Labour MP bends or breaks the rules. We all know that divided parties don't win elections.
But the bottom line is people don't vote for parties where they don't know what's on offer. And policies just don't hack it. Even with the mighty midget pledge card of 1997, few people could say what we would do on day one. But they had a view about our direction of travel. What we stood for. What were our core principles and beliefs.
And that is why it is refreshing to see the closing words of the speech that launched Tony Blair's career in parliament again, published with all other speeches by They Work for You.
The aim would be to harness the considerable resources of the constituency and the region and to let them work to create a better standard of living for the people.
After all, that is the essence of Socialism.
I am a Socialist not through reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its best, Socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral. It stands for co-operation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality, not because it wants people to be the same but because only through equality in our economic circumstances can our individuality develop properly.
British democracy rests ultimately on the shared perception by all the people that they participate in the benefits of the common weal.
After all, that is the essence of the Labour Party. And still worth voting for.
