One Nation Britain

 Ed Miliband performed one heck of a speech yesterday at the Labour Party Conference. Speaking without the aid of a teleprompter or cards, Ed has received almost universal praise for his performance. He appeared to be very confident and actually enjoying the experience, many in the media had underestimated Ed’s speech and were shocked by just how well he delivered it. Although there was some criticism over the lack of policy, it is important to note that it is still two and a half years until the next election and a lot can change in that time. If Ed starts to make promises now, it may be impossible to keep them in 2015.

If the theme was to be summed up in one phrase, it would be “One Nation”, Ed repeated it numerous times throughout the speech. I would draw parallels with the Tory’s “We’re all in this together” slogan.

One of the main aims of the speech was to represent Ed as an ordinary person, certainly a lot more normal than David Cameron. He started off by talking about his family heritage, how his family were immigrants from Eastern Europe who fled the horrors of WWII. He said that “my family has not stayed under the one oak tree for 500 years” hinting to Cameron’s posh heritage. He spoke of how he attended a comprehensive school and why he believed that was the best form of education, saying “I wouldn’t be standing here now without my comprehensive education.”

The speech was mainly about equality, although lacking in much detail he did serve a warning to the banks, they either had to sort themselves out or Labour would break them up in 2015 (assuming a Labour victory of course).

Back in March I published a blog post titled “What to do About Ed”, I no longer believe what I wrote there. I honestly do believe that Ed Miliband will make a good Prime Minister and this speech could be a turning point for his favourablitity ratings. Although the general public will not have watched it, he has now proven himself capable to the party faithful, previously many in the Labour camp felt lacklustre about his performance. He has now converted many people to supporting him, which will hopefully allow him to turn his attention to the public and try to convert them to supporting him over David Cameron.