Lack of transparency threatens Localism agenda before it's even begun

The coalition's localism bill is designed to shift power from central government to local government, and to remove local government regulation to make those institutions more flexible and responsive to local people's needs. This will allow them to 'genuinely lead their communities'.

The DCLG business plan, published in November, makes it clear that this seismic shift in the structure of British government will only be successful if local government is compelled to change: it needs to become more accountable, transparent, and democratic. One of the simplest and most necessary changes is that all local government bodies be forced to publish all spending information. If this is not done local citizens cannot make informed decisions.

Publishing data needs to become the norm for councils. Currently, councils' default setting is to look to see what data they have to publish. They need to completely change their perspective and publish everything unless they are legally required not to. The figures out today showing that over half of Britain's councils have not published their data with only a month to go before the deadline are worrying.

Eric Pickles has criticised councils who have not yet published their data and asked what they are hiding, but he has not acted to legally compel them to publish their data. If localism is to work we cannot wait for the culture of secrecy to change over time. We need a rapid change and that can only be brought about by the creation of a legal imperative to publish all local spending data. Localism hasn't even begun and already there is a serious threat to one of the most important measures needed to make it a success. 

2011 is full of opportunity for Ed Miliband

The Ipsos MORI poll that claims Ed Miliband is the least popular Leader of the Opposition since Iain Duncan Smith is not great news for the Labour leader, but it's hardly terminal either.

What the graph (right) shows is that recent party leaders - with the exception of Tony Blair - have all faced difficult periods in the polls. I think Miliband will feel that he has a chance to reform his party in the same way that Cameron has changed the Conservative Party during his leadership. Miliband should be confident that he will follow Cameron's trajectory, and see Labour into the next election in 2015 with a reinvigorated Labour Party behind him.

He'll also - if he actually believes in his key economic message about cuts and it isn't just political expediency - be certain that come 2015 he'll be facing a Conservative Party in government as unpopular as the Labour Party under Gordon Brown. So I don't think Miliband will be too unhappy with these figures. He will be wary, however, of falling below -20, because when that happened to IDS, Hague and Howard they never recovered.

He will also be buoyed by the figures that show 53% of Labour members are satisfied with his leadership. He should be confident of converting some of the 25% of Labour members who 'don't know' (how you can have no opinion is beyond me) into 'satisfied' supporters of his leadership over the coming year.

The overall figures, which show that opinion is split on his leadership, are an opportunity for Miliband rather than a death knell. Electoral politics is all about convincing people that you're right and he still has the time to do it.

Yet if I was Ed Miliband I would still have some serious concerns. I'd be less worried about how I appeared to the country, and more concerned how I appeared to my backbenchers and shadow cabinet colleagues. I'd also be afraid that the absence of concrete Labour policies in many areas would blunt my political attacks. So, in the spirit of Christmas, in anticipation of an exciting 2011 and in the hope that the opposition will force the government to raise its game, here are five suggestions to get Miliband's leadership moving in the right direction:

1. Ed Miliband must improve his PMQs performances in the New Year. Whatever he is doing now isn't working. If he does this he will begin to convince his backbenchers that he can actually compete nationally with David Cameron.

2. He needs to bring Balls and Cooper closer to his leadership, because at the moment they are not in his inner circle and are just itching to prove themselves better potential leaders. Plus they are in portfolios where, frankly, their talents are completely wasted. One of them at least has to replace Johnson in the shadow Treasury role if they ever want to get close to Osborne.

3. Stop picking on the Liberal Democrats. He claims to want to woo disaffected Lib Dems but he always goes for the easy line in the media or at PMQs and picks on them for some perceived 'U-turn'. Miliband should never forget that the coalition has a Conservative majority, and that they must be his primary target.

4. Choose a few policy areas and ruthlessly demonstrate to the public how the government has taken the wrong options. Eric Pickles' reforms to local government are the most radical changes to the structure of government in the UK in years, and the government has no idea how its localism agenda will turn out. The restructuring of the NHS is potentially disastrous and the changes to education are being very poorly executed. Lansley and Gove should be easy targets for their Labour shadow ministers.

5. Get real distance from the unions. If they are actually serious when they talk of huge coordinated strike action in 2011 then it would be toxic for the Labour leader to get too close. Cameron will be looking to paint Ed Miliband as a union man helping undermine the economic recovery with reckless strikes. He must avoid this. 

Shadow Cabinet - Reaction

I think putting Alan Johnson into the Shadow Cabinet role was a pretty shrewd move by Red Ed. He's already said he broadly agrees with Darling's deficit reduction plan, which chimes with Ed's position. Furthermore, it keeps Ed Balls away from the job, and ensures that Balls doesn't become some Gordon Brown figure circa 2000, formulating his own economic policy independently of the leader. Given how off piste Balls' message on the deficit is that's an own goal avoided for Labour.

Yet this is by no means a great shadow cabinet, and it certainly doesn't chime with Ed's call to a 'new generation' given the prominence of Balls, Cooper, Johnson, and Harman, as well as other former ministers like Hain, Burnham, Flint and Benn.

I doubt the Tories will be unduly worried with this cabinet. They already know how difficult what they are trying to do is and they have just had a pretty successful conference period. They'll be more focussed on getting the Spending Review announcements sorted for later this month. That said, Theresa May will probably be a little concerned at facing off against Ed Balls, given his reputation. I can't wait to see Caroline Flint square off against Eric Pickles. That will definitely be entertaining!