You have to wonder about the prism through which Labour leader Ed Miliband’s advisors view the world.

Putting him into an interview with off-beat comedian and actor, Russell Brand, appears to be wrong on so many levels.

Russell Brand in Los Angeles, 2015
Russell Brand. The new face of British politics? Or a mistake by Miliband?

Of course talking to everyone and anyone should be a laudable aim of an honest politician, but when you come back to the carefully stage-managed reality of a modern election it beggars belief that you would link your mainstream party leader with a radical whose rants turn many regular people cold.

In what world is associating Miliband with Brand going to win him votes? If he’s after the “youf”, I’d be willing to bet a large amount of today’s younger voters are smart enough to see Mr Brand as entertainment, but not someone you’d let loose making or implementing policy.

That being the case, the only thing Labour has achieved with this stunt is to make people stop and think about how serious a politician Miliband is, how good or otherwise his judgement might be and whether giving him power might just allow the lunatics into the asylum…

At its least damaging level, it’s given the media something to yank Mr Miliband’s chain about. It might be forgotten tomorrow, but in the meantime it’s another little doubt about an unproven leader that the undecided electorate will take away. That appears to be all that the Labour team have achieved with this.

The other parties don’t look much better right now, with stage managed “passion” and tired photo op setups. It all gives a sense of a political class that’s desperately out of touch with the reality of modern life in the UK and scrabbling to work it out just enough to get though a few weeks of campaigning.

Labour may have been aiming for something fresh here. They missed.

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