Perspective is a funny thing

Ed Miliband's personal ratings have undeniably improved over the course of the campaign - they are now merely awful. I suspect (albeit without any actual evidence) that what has happened is that Labour supporters are rallying around their leader in the run-up to the election; it has been his poor rating by Labour supporters that has condemned Miliband to subterranean approval levels over the past five years.

With the prospect of Prime Minister Miliband now probably the most likely outcome to the election, we are starting to see articles saying that, actually, Ed has always been a strong, dynamic leader, and all that's happening now is that we're all seeing it. Steve Richards has written a good example here:

Ed Miliband hasn’t ‘suddenly’ become a robust leader. He always was

It's strange what this election has done to our sense of perspective though. I remember a leader of the opposition who, like Miliband, had experience at Cabinet level, and fought perceptions of weirdness and lack of leadership credentials; who kept a fractious party mostly stable, despite lack of strong input from senior figures in the last Government. His approval ratings were slightly higher than Ed Miliband's and he managed to get his party to 32% in the election - which is within a point or two of where I suspect Labour will end up this time.

William Hague was not exactly considered to be a success as opposition leader though.