What Labour needs is more humility.

The massive fall in membership under the impact of Blair marginalising the party and the Iraq war meant that Labour lost its membership.
That is where the rebuilding has to start.
Incidentally Milliband as next party leader is not the answer if my scenario is correct. He is intimately connected with the policies of the last government.
Labour became the control freak party. Not every problem requires a state solution. Not every headline requires an initiative. Not every detail of service delivery should be handed down from Whitehall. Not every risk can be covered by more laws. We have to be more proportional on the role of the state. They have lost touch so much with people who are fed up with their arrogance and false promises. They have neither humility, style, nor, more importantly, substance on which to rebuild.
Public sector expenditure was out of control, services were rubbish and OAP's were being fined 200 pounds because their bin wasn't in the right place while an 18 year old who admitted 750 burglaries was given a conditional discharge and a council house.
A new word has been coined called "Brownie" - not a cookie but an "untruth". Very little of what yellow streak Gordon Brown ever said was true. If Labour is to recover, it must respect "truth" - avoid hyperbole and just be truthful. You must avoid having people like slimy Campbell, snake Mandelson, evil McBride, dis-united Whelan as your advisers; and Jack Dromey is not starting well - you should have a quiet word and explain the difference between being loyal and lying.