Is Miliband PM-In-Waiting After Conference Success?

I went to this year's Labour Party Conference in Manchester literally not knowing what to expect from Ed Miliband.
 

His speech at last year's Conference, may have pleased some of  the delegates in the hall and the Party members outside, but it was too focussed on the economy at the expense of other issuses.  We learnt very little about Miliband the man. 

Worse still, the speech was highly academic; littered with abstract concepts, such as 'predators' and 'producers' and did precious little to stir the interest of the apathetic electorate at large, whose minds would have been preoccupied with dealing with their financial woes, and worrying where the next meal would be coming from.

 

This year, however, the transformation in the Labour leader was astonishing.

He quite simply sparkled in two excellent Q&A sessions; he has shown in previous years as leader that he is completely at home with this way of communicating with delegates and the wider electorate.

But it was in his keynote speech at the end of  Conference week which has now transformed Ed Miliband's standing.
 

He abandoned the lecturn altogether, and his informal style of delivery- completely without notes - was an instant success. At last, after two previous Conference speeches which told us nothing, we were given an unequivocal demonstration of what Miliband stands for and his headline-grabbing idea of 'One Nation' really took those in the hall by storm.

It was without a doubt his best speech to date and has certainly made his opponents and political observers sit up and start to take notice of Ed Miliband.  Coming on the back of much-improved performances at PMQs, with the Prime Minister and the Coalition very much on the back-foot, he has started to look like a Prime Minister-in-waiting.

Indeed, even those in the Tory ranks have warned David Cameron not to under-estimate Ed Miliband.  Nadine Dorries, one of the new intake of MPs from the last election who famously described David Cameron and his public-school, Oxbridge-dominated Cabinet as 'posh boys', has struck exactly that tone.http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thecolumnists/2012/09/from-nadinedorriesmp-ed-miliband-is-still-a-mystery-opponent-to-underestimate-him-would-be-foolish.ht

And so, following an absolutely torrid last few weeks for the Tories, Ed Miliband is finally riding high and Labour is starting to look like a credible opposition and, if the polls are right and there was a general election tomorrow, they would be back in government.

However, Ed Miliband and the party he leads, cannot afford to rest on their laurels. Whilst the coalition might be in a lot of difficulty, there is still a considerable amount that Labour has to do to convince the electorate that they can be trusted with power again.

To begin with, I have expressed my views many times on how Labour currently elects their leader. A system which results in someone being elected who the majority of those who voted did not want has to go.  In my mind, whilst there are many pitfalls to this system, a simple one-member-one-vote method is the only way forward. The current system,  where the trades unions have so much influence, is completely out-of-date. There is clearly no chance of this issue being addressed before 2015. Just like Tony Blair was bold enough to revise Clause IV, if he really wants the Labour Party to be seen as truly democratic, then Ed Miliband must show his mettle and be prepared to look at changing Labour's way of choosing their leader. I really believe this will resonate with the electorate.

Mistakes were made with immigration and the huge influx of eastern european migrants who were allowed into this country following the relaxation of EU border controls. Our continued membership of the EU is a highly-contentious issue on both sides of the House of Commons. I feel Ed Miliband would become even more popular than he is now if he was to back growing calls for a referendum on whether to leave the EU.

More significantly, whilst the Coalition's plan for deficit-reduction is clearly not working, Labour must be prepared to learn from the mistakes in economic policy they made in government and not repeat them.

Whilst they were right to spend what they did on frontline services in health and education, it is very clear that a lot of public funds were wasted unnecessary bureaucracy.   The millions that were spent on Quangoes - in particular the enormous salaries paid to those running them - is a striking example.

The last government undoubtedly went overboard with health and safety regulations too.  The enforcement of such unnecessary regulation cost billions of pounds which could have been put to better use elsewhere.

Also, Labour needs to recognise the need for a far more balanced economy than was promoted under their last period in office. There was too much focus on the financial sector, at the expense of other vital areas, such as manufacturing.

To say that the current state of the UK economy is mostly down to the Labour's mismanagement, is a line that David Cameron still like to stick to. But the global downturn was the biggest contributary factor to our financial woes.

However Ed Miliband must reflect on where Labour got things wrong when last in power and ensure these mistakes are not repeated.  He might be riding on the crest of a wave now, with the Coalition doing so badly,  but if Labour does enjoy a long period in government after the next election, it remains to be seen as to whether we will see history repeating itself.