Labour's leadership race There are great opportunities for whoever takes the crown. The party does not need a huge leap in parliamentary seats to win the next election. Polls already put it close to the Tories--before its new leader is unveiled and the coalition's austerity drive bites. Even if no candidate matches David Cameron, the prime minister, as a political performer, Labour could have a stronger front-bench team than the coalition. They have many politicians with the profile cabinet experience bestows, but who are still young enough to represent the future.

But daunting challenges await the new boss too. Labour may be rising in the polls precisely because it is leaderless: voters are not being asked to choose between the government and a specific, perhaps less attractive, alternative; the Tories do not have an enemy to attack. (Having once feared Ed Miliband more than his brother, they now see David as the bigger threat.)

The race has pointed up serious internal problems too. On tax-and-spend, many in the party--including many unions, who help to fund it--are to the left of even the two Eds, and hope vaguely that tax increases on the rich can close the deficit. Reforming the state is just as contentious. Many at the top of the party know that opposing government plans to expand choice in areas such as education and policing could make them look like enemies of the voters. But there is intense hostility to those ideas among the many public-sector workers who support Labour.

These splits matter. Unless someone wins a crushing victory (unlikely), power will be spread among an oligopoly of shadow-cabinet big beasts and union leaders. That could make for a fractious party.