Ed Miliband's Best Speech

Today's speech by Ed Miliband has been judged by some to be his best (as Labour party leader) to date, at least in some respects. Here it is in two parts...





That judgment has to be a qualified one. As Peter Hoskin at The Spectator points out, his message was largely taken from David Cameron's book, and for once even contained a little specific detail here and there. Of course, it is just words without real meaning this far from a General Election, and seems to be an attempt to win back support by pretending to be a kind of "caring Labour" version of the current national government, playing on their electoral success (which it was even for the Conservatives alone, despite the outcome in terms of seats) which Labour well recognises privately.

I don't think Ed's message fits properly, though, especially with all that has been said by Labour people, including Ed-M himself and including very recently, that comes across as inconsistent with today's expressed views and hints at actual policy. Read Peter Hoskin's last paragraph to reinforce what I mean by this.

Labour can never be credible in the sphere of "personal responsibility" (equals small, non-interfering State), especially with a Union-bought party leader who will have been told quite bluntly by his Union de facto bosses/party bankrollers that he can be dumped and replaced if he doesn't "shape up" (or words to that effect).

Despite all the negatives, though, it was a comparatively good speech, particularly by Ed's speech-writing team, who have done a much better job than with past efforts. The public will still be wary, and the converging opinion poll figures (especially the non-YouGov daily ones) show that they really aren't convinced yet, as for that matter do Ed "Wallace" Miliband's own leadership evaluations in the polls since he replaced Gordon Brown. There's still a very long way to go, and they might never get there!