by Kevin Meagher
This was the speech Ed Miliband should have made in Manchester at the party conference a few weeks ago.
Actually, this was the speech Ed Miliband should have been making for the past four years.
This was the speech of a leader. He was good. Straight. Urgent. Passionate. And even authoritative too.
In fact, this was probably the best speech Ed Miliband has made.
Partly through what wasn’t in it.
There was no self-deprecating preamble or any of his weak jokes (his timing stinks).
Tellingly, there were none of his passive physical gestures either. You know, that upturned hand thing he does? (Although there were a few of those long blinks as his turns his head).
There was none of his abstract theorising. This seemed to be a speech written by a press officer rather than a policy wonk.
As for “together”, the anaemic theme of his conference speech, there was not a word.
And, blessedly, there were no more of those toe-curling tales of meeting people on Clapham Common.
This was alpha-male stuff. Black-coffee-and-three-shredded-wheat-for-breakfast-Ed.
He wisely abandoned the parlour trick of memorising his speech (which got him into so much trouble in Manchester when he forgot to mention immigration and the deficit).
