http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15082652
http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2011/09/27/miliband-conference-speech-2011-reactions
I attended Ed Miliband's speech at this year's Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, neither expecting too much or too little from it.
Miliband has spoken out well on a number of issues, most notably the hacking scandal.
But he has not stamped his mark on the Party in his first year as leader sufficiently in my view and Cameron almost always has had the upper hand at PMQs.
However, I was pleasantly surprised.
Miliband's second Conference speech as Labour Party leader was, in the main, very well received by delegates and Party members.
It was his best yet, and an address in which Miliband spelt out very clearly where he stands. It was obvious straight away that he can no longer be justifiably described as 'Red Ed', as he praised some of the Thatcherite policies of the 80s, like the sale of council houses and measures to curb the unions.
These were very bold words from a man who, up until this year's conference had still to explain to the electorate what he stands for, after more than a year as Labour leader.
Despite later criticism from the media and Business leaders, Miliband delivered his vision of a new kind of capitalism, distinguishing between the Producers and Predators, companies that put something back into society and those that abused their financial power and ripped people off. I thought this was an extremely clever way of taking the Party forward, pledging that a future Labour government would promote more responsible practices when re-elected and was a clear admission that the previous admistration had failed to curb the excesses of the banks which had contributed to the recession of 2008.
Miliband declared that he was his own man, but at the same time, was eager to praise the achievements of his predecessors Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. It was extremely disheartening to hear boos in the audience at the mention of Blair's name. Clearly these were people who never liked Blair anyway and felt he took the Party too far to the right. But how perverse to heckle someone who to date has been Labour's most successful Prime Minister, leading the party to three successive general election victories. Blair did make very notable mistakes, such as with Iraq, but his many achievements in government should be applauded. The consensus amongst those in the hall was that Labour should embrace their leaders, not disparage them, as this sends a message to the country at large that the Party is disunited. http://www.labourlist.org/lets-talk-about-blair. And of course it allowed Cameron in his conference speech to really take a swipe at Labour for doing so.
Whilst this speech lacked concrete policy announcements, which is not unexpected four years away from a general election, it was about Ed Miliband the man, his beliefs and where he wants to take the Party.
Labour have a very hard task ahead in restoring the Party's credibility on the economy, especially with Gordon Brown's protegee, Ed Balls, in charge of that brief.
But Miliband certainly has now convinced me that he has what it takes be Prime Minister. He excelled too, in the Q&A session, the following day, in which non-Labour members were invited to participate. It was further evidence of his ability to connect with ordinary voters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2SAkFYgbok
I am sure that he will continue to make a positive impact over the next twelve months. Miliband will no doubt be helped by the worsening state of the economy and the coalition's increasing unpopularity.
What Ed Miliband has to do now is take advantage of these economic events in carrying his message round the country so that he convinces the electorate as well.
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