Now take control of candidate selection Ed

The recent media attempt to destabilise Ed Miliband's leadership of the Labour Party seems a distant memory. Miliband himself responded laconically to the fuss, Labour's rank and file circled the wagons and the PLP made it absolutely clear that even the notion of a leadership contest was the furthest thing from its mind. The probability is that there will be more news cycles like this, but the truth is that Ed Miliband - and Labour - needed this history lesson.

Whoever emerged victorious from Labour's leadership contest was always going to be subjected to this kind of media treatment, with precisley this kind of right-wing media strategy; prolong the splits of the past, maintain Labour is divided, add colour with some sibling rivalry. The real surprise is that it took so long. Labour's top team must have known that this would happen. If not, they must surely know that it will happen again.

All of which presents a genuinely attractive proposition for Ed Miliband. Under Ed Miliband's leadership, Labour is engaged in a thorough re-examination of the successes and failures of its last three terms in office. It has begun lifting the stones - in former Labour areas and Labour supporting heartlands - so that it can understand just why the last Labour government became so disconnected from the people it exists to serve. This understanding will definitely point to an obvious truth; that the Labour Party must change if it wants to win.

The general trend of election results since the general election has been good, with the obvious exception of Scotland (a defeat which owed as much to complacency as organisation and strategy). Given the devolved nature of Scottish Labour politics it isn't credible to lay the defeat at Miliband's door, though no one can recile from the importance of the result.

Amongst the public at large, the problem isn't that people dislike Ed Miliband (how could any political party grow its membership by 65,000 people in the space of less than a year if this was the case?) but that they don't know much, if anything about him. Ed's former kingdom of climate change politics isn't kitchen table discourse; it was always going to be tough to make the crossover to the mainstream. In making a successful transition, both the Labour Leader and the Parliamentary Labour Party (not the Labour membership) need to recognise something as fundamental as it is difficult. Having narrowly escaped a 1983 style result, Labour now finds itself in a similar electoral position to the aftermath of its 1992 defeat. It was this defeat which finally gave life to Labour's transformation and this transformation saw Labour become an election winning machine which would knowingly rather implement as many of its values as possible in office rather than preserve every sacred principle in permanent opposition. Even then, Labour didn't change purely because it knew it had to, but because its Leadership forced it to.

Even so, today's challenge is made all the more complicated by the fact that Britain is a nation at odds with itself. An anxiety ridden nation, waiting for a creeping austerityto arrive - the recession is only now beginning to eat into the fabric of ordinary life for the majority.

Without doubt, this is one of the most critical periods in the history of the Labour Party. So as Miliband begins the process of shaping his public perception, he would do well to kick the Parliamentary Labour Party out of its soporific torpor. Both the public and the PLP responds to visible and effective leadership; this provides clarity and it demonstrates strength. Under PLP rules, the Shadow Cabinet is elected, not appointed and should Labour form a government, the Leader is compelled to preserve the Shadow Cabinet membership in government. Ed milliband is exactly right to rip up the rule book.

Bill Shankly never let the crowd pick his team, neither did Brian Clough or Alex Ferguson. Every one a left-wing winner. Field Marshalls pick their Generals, they don't ask a committee. Before tonight, the elections for Labour's Shadow Cabinet were due to take place again next year. Miliband is right - and courageous - to stop this. After this year's party conference, Ed Miliband will have established the direction of the Labour Party and charted what we all believe will be Labour's road back to power. He is right to insist upon hand-picking his shadow cabinet. Next, he should continue to drive the change the party needs by establishing a challenging criteria for the selection processes of Labour's parliamentary candidates for the 2015 election. New boundaries mean new constituency parties and not a single Labour candidate at the next general election should be allowed to believe in imaginary comfort zones, old style politics, or a mythical Britain based upon traditional certainties. As Britain changes, so must Labour - but with the right political antennae, Labour - and its Leader - can lead this change.

Do this and do it well and the country will know that the Labour Leader is capable of becoming prime minister. To change the country, Ed Miliband must first change the Labour Party. Ripping up the rule book on Shadow Cabinet elections is a significant change, a sign of further change to follow and the mark of a political leader capable of becoming a national one.