After he was elected leader of the Labour Party here in Manchester four years ago, Ed Miliband gave a pretty poor speech to party delegates, many of whom were clearly wondering whether they had picked the right brother. But he got his act together and the following year saw a remarkable transformation; his speech (without notes) was folksy, passionate and lucid and made a very good impression, inside the hall and beyond. The following year, he did even better and this time the content of his speech (the freeze on energy prices) dominated the political agenda for months afterwards. So expectations this year were high and I think it would be a stretch to say that he met them. The speech was...okay. There were some passionate sections on the NHS that were wildly well-received in the hall, but he went on a little long, it was repetitive in places and the speech as a whole seemed to lack the focus of recent years. That may not matter. It is hardly an election issue, but as Leader of the Opposition you need to take every chance you can get and today might get chalked down as an opportunity missed. That said, he may be correct in his belief that the deciding factor next May is likely to be the question of which party is going to make the recovering economy work best for ordinary working families. In that sense, new policies on the NHS, the minimum wage and house building might make the bones of a compelling offer.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:44:34 +0000
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