There have been all kinds of ructions in Labour over the last few days.

One report suggested a group of MPs is about to urge former minister Alan Johnson to challenge Ed Miliband for the leadership. The former deputy PM John Prescott has also said Mr Miliband needs to be "bolder" (which is usually code for more left wing) and that "time is running out" (which could be Geoffrey Howe-style code that Mr Prescott thinks a change of leader is needed).

Now there was a time when I would have taken some delight in all this disarray. I have never voted Labour and used to think I never would. Indeed, since the 1980s, I have had an aversion to the party in the way some Scots have to the Tories, partly because Labour policies were ideological but illogical, such as a nuclear-free Britain, nationalisation and leaving the European Union, and partly because of the party's hand-in-glove, leave-it-to-me-mate relationship with the trade unions, which was undemocratic and unpleasant.

But many of those barriers are gone. The extreme policies of the 1980s are political history. We are on the other side of the progressive social reforms of Tony Blair. And Ed Miliband appears to be fixing the problem of the unions by introducing one member, one vote (albeit about 100 years after every other political movement). All this, combined with a few other factors that have fallen into place in recent weeks, means I am finally overcoming my aversion. So much so that, next year, I will probably, for the first time, be voting Labour.

One of the factors that has helped change my mind is a tactical one. Four years ago, in my constituency of Ayr, Carrick, and Cumnock, Labour won, with the Tories in second place and the SNP in third. There is every likelihood Labour will win again, but if there is a threat, it will come from the SNP, who will use any surge in its vote as an argument for another referendum. What this means for No voters like me is that the best strategy at the General Election and the Scottish parliamentary elections in 2016 will be to vote strategically in certain seats to ensure Labour does as well as possible in Scotland. In other words, us two million No voters - Tory, LibDems and Labour, as well as several thousand SNP voters - need to stick together one more time and vote tactically against the Nationalists.

But there are some other factors that are swinging me towards Labour and Ed Miliband. The first is an emotional one, sparked by the sight of Mr Miliband being screamed and shouted at by Yes campaigners when he was doing a walkabout in Edinburgh before the referendum. When I see that kind of aggressive, spittle-specked and, let's face it, essentially male behaviour, I instinctively side with the bullied rather than the bullies.

And Mr Miliband is not so bad. I have met the guy and, yes, he is a little awkward and geeky, and charisma hardly shoots out of the end of his fingers, but I am not convinced this will be the big problem everyone thinks it will be at the General Election.

Remember 1992? John Major had many of the same problems as Mr Miliband: an unfortunate voice, a grey personality and a sometimes torturous, sometimes tedious, way of getting from the start of a sentence to the end of it. But in the end, the electorate voted for Mr Major. Perhaps, in the face of Neil Kinnock punching the air or David Cameron messianically spreading his arms at the Tory Party Conference, we rather like dull and uncharismatic.

As for the final factor swaying me towards Labour, it is the most important: policies. Mr Prescott may say Mr Miliband needs to be bolder, but a much better strategy is to come up with solid policy ideas and, on this, Mr Miliband has been impressive: increasing the minimum wage; offering as many apprenticeships as university places; thousands of new homes. All of this is pretty centrist stuff rather than radical but that is often where the best and most popular ideas lie: in the sexy mid point between left and right.

Will it be enough? Possibly not when the current three-party system seems to be breaking up into a four or even five-party one. But Ed Miliband already has my vote. And in Scotland at least, he has a good, solid chance of attracting the strong, reasonable middle-ground that voted No last month. He may still surprise us all.