What Ed Miliband Should Say At Labour Conference, But Won’t

It is now beyond question that Ed Miliband is moving his party to the left, or redefining the centre ground if you prefer, or drawing a line under the New Labour era. Or whatever.










The latest symbolic move has been to back Palestinian statehood in advance of a vote at the UN. This is a peculiar decision that makes no real sense before knowing what the Palestinians are putting on the table, except to send a strong message to the party faithful that Ed Miliband is shifting policy on the Middle East. This line on Israel/Palestine is one that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown would never have countenanced and that is the whole point.

Ed Miliband is determined to ditch the legacy of the Blair-Brown era (which is odd considering that he is its creature) and I can’t help thinking this is a terrible strategic error.

The opposition is hamstrung by the fact that it still hasn’t found the right language to take on the government. Miliband has squeezed himself into a tiny ideological sliver, where he can’t move any further to the left for fear of inviting ridicule, but can’t entirely embrace the achievements of the Blair-Brown years either.

In welfare to work, education and health, the Cameroons are engaged in implementing the Blairite reform agenda. The logic of Ed Miliband in the new post-New Labour era should make it possible to oppose this from the Left. But there are still too many Blairites around him to quite pull this off. With Liam Byrne in charge of the policy review it will be impossible to dump the New Labour policy agenda in its entirety.

Instead of trying to persuade people that Cameron is a Thatcherite in disguise, Labour should concentrate on questioning the Tories’ competence in government. Ed Miliband’s conference speech should recognise that all the most adventurous ideas of the new government are stolen from New Labour and give them a cautious welcome. He should then say that the job of opposition is to forensically examine the government’s record on delivery and stand back.

He won’t do this, of course, because to embrace the Blairite legacy would mean immediate death within the party.

Miliband To Face The People

Ed Miliband is to face direct questions from members of the public at Labour's national conference next week as part of his effort to show that the party is listening to ordinary people.












Some 2,000 members of the public, recruited through the local media, have been invited to submit questions on any subject which will be put to the Labour leader without any pre-checking, said party sources.

The question-and-answer session on Wednesday comes as Mr Miliband seeks to change the party's rulebook to allow non-members to take part in the election of future leaders by becoming "registered supporters".

The Labour leader hopes to secure the change at an eve-of-conference meeting of the ruling National Executive Committee on Saturday, when he will also push for the abolition of elections to the shadow cabinet.

In a foreword to the conference agenda, Mr Miliband argues that the party must use next week's gathering - taking place in Liverpool under the slogan Fulfilling the Promise of Britain - to show it has "the confidence to change".

In his keynote speech on Tuesday, he will tell his party that it is time to "rip up the rulebook" in order to challenge an economic and political settlement that has become the consensus over the past decades.

In a video message to supporters, Mr Miliband said there is a "quiet crisis" among the "hard-working people of Britain" over living standards, worries about their children's futures and irresponsibility in society.

He said: "We've got to change those things - we've got to do it by taking on the vested interests that hold our country back, from the banks to the energy companies. We've got to stand up for the grafters, the hard-working majority in Britain."

Writing in the conference magazine, Mr Miliband accused the Conservatives of being "out of touch" with ordinary people and too close to a "powerful and privileged few", of making "reckless choices" on issues such as NHS reform and the cuts programme and having "no vision for a better Britain".

"It is up to Labour to be the voice of those families whose living standards are being squeezed ever tighter, who worry that their children will find it tougher to get on in life and feel angry that irresponsible behaviour is rewarded," wrote Mr Miliband.