Why David Cameron should pray that Ed Miliband doesn't quit There will have been cheers in Downing Street at the news that, despite some panic-stricken Labour MPs calling for his resignation, Ed Miliband was staying put as party leader. For the increasingly hopeless Mr Miliband is David Cameron's most powerful not-so-secret election weapon in his fight to remain prime minister. When Harold Wilson was similarly said to have lost the confidence of the Labour faithful in 1969, he sharply retorted: "I know what's going on. I'm going on! Mr Miliband, sadly, lacks both the wit and the stature to disarm his own critics so easily. Since his pitiful conference speech and Labour's plunge in the polls in its Scottish heartland, Mr Miliband looks like a loser. The increasingly hopeless Mr Miliband, pictured left, is David Cameron's, right, most powerful not-so-secret election weapon in his fight to remain prime minister What's more, almost everyone in his party - apart from a clique of fellow pointy-head yes-men and women - now realises the truth. Former Labour spin doctor Damian McBride summed up feelings by describing the mood in the party as "black." Yet Mr Miliband seems in denial about the crisis, ignoring the party chairman's admission that some MPs want him out. Living in cloud cuckoo land, he imagines the future of Britain depends on him becoming prime minister. Yet even his one-time supporters, such as the New Statesman magazine, savagely described Mr Miliband as "very much an old-style Hampstead socialist," adding that "he doesn't understand the lower middle class or material aspiration. As the journalist who first documented the stereotype "Essex Man" - to describe aspirational, hard-working people whose values were championed by Thatcherism - I know the damning verdict is true. The white lower-middle and working class of Essex - and of other parts of the south of England, where Labour desperately needs to win seats - feel the party has nothing to offer them. The fact is that Labour disgracefully neglected such families when it was in government - allowing mass immigration to reduce the number of available jobs and force down wages, creating a bloated state machine and abandoning countless thousands to a life of welfare dependency. Privately there are many Labour MPs, fearing they'll lose their seats, who say that if the general election were not six months away, they would try to depose Mr Miliband. Desperation hasn't reached the level, though, to trigger a serious plot. Not yet, anyway. However, many Labour MPs are well aware that Mr Cameron would panic if Mr Miliband were to resign and be replaced by a popular figure such as former Home Secretary Alan Johnson. Although Mr Johnson protests he is not interested in the job, one of his friends tells me: "Alan can't bear the thought of a contest ... but an unopposed coronation might be different." Mr Miliband's personal failings apart, Labour's problems go much deeper. Most of its Shadow Cabinet elite - Ed Balls, Harriet Harman, Yvette Cooper and Chuka Umunna - espouse metropolitan views that are semi-detached from the real world. As for Mr Balls, his persistent, doom-laden predictions of an economic meltdown proved to be 100 per cent wrong. And don't forget Labour's stewardship of the NHS in Wales has been a disaster, raising severe doubts whether a Labour government can be trusted with control of the NHS in England. A couple of years ago, when Ed Miliband was experiencing an earlier version of this crisis, a gloomy Labour MP told me: "Ed will have to be allowed to lose the next election." Given the way party rules have been written which make it fiendishly difficult to put Mr Miliband out of his misery, that prediction may yet turn out to be remarkably accurate - and save us all from calamity. Some MPs are sleeping more easily because Speaker John Bercow has allowed expenses claims made before 2011 to be shredded. The watchdog set up to oversee MPs" expenses hadn't finished examining them to see if there had been any more flagrant misuses of taxpayers" money. Mr Bercow's decision is scandalous. Isn't that what police call "destroying evidence"? This outrage must be investigated by independent assessors, to prevent any allegations that he was doing favours to protect either himself or his friends. Send in the police, Eric Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, has sent in a "hit squad" to run Tower Hamlets council in East London, following a devastating report that found evidence of cronyism and a risk of corruption. The mayor, Lutfur Rahman, is the man at the centre of the scandal, giving lucrative contracts to chums. So far there is little sign of a police inquiry, something the allegations in the report would seem to make absolutely essential. Predictably, Bangladeshi-born Mr Rahman's cronies have played the race card, saying he is being victimised because he is from an ethnic minority. All the more reason, I suggest, to test the evidence in court. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has sent in a 'hit squad' to run Tower Hamlets council in East London Lord Hill, the UK's new man in Brussels, has broken all records for the speed with which he has gone native. Barely had he settled into his office - lavishly funded by the taxpayer - than he insulted those concerned about the EU's insolent demand for an extra £1.7 bn from Britain, telling them to "keep calm." Even though that grotesque bill has now been halved, there is nothing to be calm about. Rather than be so complacent, this former ad-man and Cameron crony ought to be doing everything in his power to establish how £5.5 billion in last year's EU budget was "misspent." Robocops? It's just not British I am well aware of the threat from Islamic extremists, but I deeply regret that police officers now patrol parts of Central London wearing U.S.-style combat overalls and carry sub-machine guns. Such a militaristic look puts up a further barrier between the public and law enforcers. It also normalises the presence of heavily armed police on our streets. I sincerely hope that as well as addressing the symptoms of terror in this way, the Government will start to address the causes - such as allowing radicalisation of young men to continue apparently unchecked in too many of our Muslim communities. A year or two ago, Kent County Council bravely tried to circumvent the Tory-led Government's idiotic ban on the creation of new grammar schools by opening a new, selective educational establishment in an existing school. However, the plan was vetoed by then Education Secretary Michael Gove. Now his Cabinet colleague Theresa May is backing a similar plan for a state-funded selective school in her constituency. Why the change of heart? Not out of principle, surely! I suspect it's just to steal a march on Ukip, whose policy to create more grammars is hugely popular. Truth on taxes is a vote-winner Former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson launched a new think-tank this week with a speech that should be a blueprint for the next Tory manifesto. Identifying how heavy taxation is crushing the aspiration of many middle-class people, he called for a much smaller state machine. With new figures revealing that the middle class are experiencing reverse social mobility, his arguments are well-timed. They also coincide with the Government sending letters to taxpayers which give a breakdown of how their money is spent. The shocking figures, which show, for example, that someone on a £23,000 salary pays £1,113 a year in tax on welfare and £318 on national debt interest payments, will hopefully mean they will vote for any party that promises to spend less.