You've convinced me. From now on I will have greater respect for pollsters. They got this election dead right. 40 30 20 is the way its going to stay for a while. Labours Leaders challenge is to move up to 40 and push the Cons down to 30. Going back to 'socialism' is not going to do it, but capturing the centre ground.

"But obviously, if Labour continues with the centre-right positioning strategy that's lost it 5 million voters since 1997, then there's no reason why they should benefit from any of that."

Sadly enough, I really don't think voters are abandoning Labour for the Liberals and the Tories because Labour is too far to the right.

"Sadly enough, I really don't think voters are abandoning Labour for the Liberals and the Tories because Labour is too far to the right."

Think about two major policies that characterised Labour's rightward drift. One was the invasion of Iraq, where Labour joined a US government of the hard-right in a neo-colonial war of aggression. Another was Labour's capitulation to Thatcherite orthodoxy on economics, allowing the financial sector to go essentially unregulated and to crowd out the rest of the economy, leaving us uniquely vulnerable to the bursting of speculative bubbles - a regular occurance throughout economic history and an obvious danger.

Aside from the grevious costs to Iraqis themselves, the war caused a "catastrophic loss of trust" in Labour, to quote Ed Miliband, fatally damaging its credibility amongst progressive voters. The economic crash made it impossible for Labour to win a fourth term. Labour's two greatest failures of its term in office were entirely down to a betrayal of its core values.

Note also that the Conservatives and LibDems have consciously been portraying themselves as more progressive than Labour, pitching themselves to the left of Labour on civil liberties for example, or offering different solutions to the same priorities on poverty and inequality.

I would say that if Labour wants to stay wedded to the received wisdom of the 1990s and continue to pursue a losing strategy than that's its own lookout, but the fact is that British politics needs a proper, progressive opposition to the neo-liberal opportunism that Osborne and Laws have got planned. Labour needs to wake up to itself.

@David Wearing - You put it so well - keep on saying it!

We are still in very very early days. It's far too soon to start coming to any firm conclusions. Wait until the first mistake, the first scandal, the first resignation etc. It also prompts interesting questions such as will voters now decide voting Lib Dem to keep the Tories out of marginal seats is a pointless exercise now.

I wonder what Lib dem voters who were certainly NOT voting Tory make of it all. Yes getting rid of ID cards is a good thing as is ending child immigration detention, (some Labour MP's opposed those and other attacks on liberties throughout the last three Parliaments). I suspect that when the jobless total rises, the cuts bite home and the Osborne-Laws version of monetarism takes over the grass roots Lib Dems and some MP's will cry out.
It is now up to Labour to defend the best (Sure Start, Childrens Centres, Education spending, minimum wage, Human Rights Act etc); AND admit the ghastly tragedies of Iraq and Afghanistan and the de-regulation of the late 1990's - 00's.
The election results were not uniform, but worth noting that thousands are now joining Labour.
We need a leaderhsip contest that reflects the bredth of opinion in the Party.