Martha Kearney's week

By Martha Kearney
Presenter, BBC Radio 4's The World at One

Labour candidate Richard McKenzie came fifth in Henley

"I feel a bit like we're fighting at the Battle of Passchendaele," one minister told me as he was dashing from one studio to the next, launching a new policy this week.

"Hurling ourselves over the top in a fresh assault knowing that we're doomed in the end".

Coming fifth in the Henley by-election after the BNP and the Greens doesn't exactly bode well.

Our reporter Ray Furlong went there this week and the only Labour voter he managed to find said "You know, I really liked that Tony Blair chap."

It was a disappointing result for the Liberal Democrats too. Senior party figures believe that Nick Clegg will only really establish himself as leader once he has had a substantial by election win as Paddy Ashdown had with Newbury and Charles Kennedy with Brent East.

Self-inflicted wounds

I expect Labour whips are hoping that their MPs remain hale and hearty for as long as possible not purely for reasons of humanity.

On the anniversary of Gordon Brown's accession as leader, the reasons for Labour's troubles are well explored - from the self-inflicted wounds of the election that never was and the abolition of the 10 pence tax band to external economic problems of rising fuel and food prices.

The challenge facing whoever leads the Labour Party - Brown, Blair or any young pretender, is to justify why a government which has been in power for so long should be given another term

The Conservatives are trying to pin those on the government too with that phrase borrowed from US politics "they didn't fix the roof while the sun was shining".

The Tories have clearly taken to heart that old Mandelson maxim which is that it is only when a politician feels physically sick at repeating the same phrase so often that the public begin to notice it.

There have been difficulties at the Treasury which Iain Watson explored for us this week through a series of off-the-record chats with senior Treasury officials, past and present.

Clear vision

Some of their views were echoed by Jim Cousins, a Labour member of the Treasury Select Committee who said: "The image of the Treasury is not a good one and frankly this is a moment when we really need a confident Treasury held in high esteem by the British public¿.The show's got to be sorted out."

Others too believe that Gordon Brown has been reluctant to let go his old job as chancellor.

A banker told me that on the weekend when there were serious concerns about the future of Bradford and Bingley, Gordon Brown himself had been calling senior City figures.

Mr Cameron has been talking about his party's health policy

Alistair Darling himself privately acknowledges that Number Ten is taking a keen interest in his department but his view is that it was ever thus - prime ministers are always very interested in the economy.

Somehow I feel it must be different when the PM has spent ten years at the Treasury.

Many Labour MPs see the risk for Gordon Brown in attempting too much micromanagement is that he is not spending enough time setting out a clear vision of what the government's aims.

Again and again this week ministers have said to me that the party lacks "a narrative".

'New Conservatives'

Voters won't pay attention to a blizzard of policy initiatives, they believe, if they have no understanding of the values which underpin them.

It is a criticism which I can remember being levelled at Tony Blair.

The challenge facing whoever leads the Labour Party - Brown, Blair or any young pretender, is to justify why a government which has been in power for so long should be given another term. That task has been made more difficult by Gordon Brown's own unpopularity.

The Conservatives' lead in the polls has led to more scrutiny of their policies. David Cameron came on WATO this week to talk about his health policy.

Analysis done for us by the King's Fund, the health think tank, concluded that the Conservative proposals differed very little from what the government is already planning to do.

The NHS is moving away from centrally driven targets and will publish outcomes of operations and treatments in some areas next year.

Tory caution on the NHS is understandable given past accusations that they wanted to dismantle it but some in the party are critical and want a more radical approach to public service reform.

But that drive to the centre makes the Conservatives a more difficult target for Labour. I remember the same dilemma the other way around when Tony Blair came on the scene.

The Conservatives tried at first to paint him as being really old Labour under the skin - remember those Demon Eyes posters?

Facing "new Conservatives" Labour doesn't want to acknowledge that David Cameron has changed his party, but will an attack based on "remember those nasty Tories" really resonate with voters now?

We'll see those messages being tested out in coming months. Roll on the by-election for David Davis's seat in Haltemprice and Howden.