Labour conference: Ed Miliband now has a political project and a frame for his arguments
From our UK edition
listen to ‘Ed Miliband conference speech highlights, 2 Oct 12’ on Audioboo.
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Tuesday
Labour conference: Polling suggests Ed Miliband is still not seen as PM material
From our UK edition
As Ed Miliband prepares to present a carefully crafted image of 'Ed the human' to the Labour conference this afternoon, polling out today suggests the nation still does not see him as a future Prime Minister. In a ComRes poll for the Independent, just 22 per cent of voters said they agree that Ed Miliband has what it takes to be Prime Minister, compared to 33 per cent for David Cameron: On the economy, Balls and Miliband continue to rank below the public's view of Cameron and Osborne.
Labour conference: Angela Eagle’s policy Trumpton
From our UK edition
At the very end of a rather long and wonkish fringe about Labour's policy review last night, Angela Eagle started describing what she called an 'electronic town square'. She'd already told the audience about Star Trek salutes, so this town square, which sounded rather like Labour's answer to Trumpton, was quite in keeping with the slightly quirky discussion. But the electronic town square is even more interesting than Star Trek because it's an example of how the party is trying to update the way it creates policy and engages with its members and members of the public.
Labour conference: Ed Miliband brings his personal story to the fore
From our UK edition
Ed Miliband wants voters to see a little bit more of the man he is this conference, and his speech today is expected to be very personal, giving even more vivid glimpses into the Labour leader's life. He will draw on his own upbringing in the speech, pointing to his parents' experience as Jewish refugees and the education he received at a London comprehensive. Although this is being billed as the most personal speech Miliband will give, it's not as though he hasn't delivered speeches before about his identity. In his first speech as Labour leader in 2010, for instance, he told the hall that he wanted 'to tell you who I am' and described his parents' flight to Britain in quite some detail.
Monday
Labour conference: The stakes are raised for Miliband’s speech
From our UK edition
Ed Miliband will roam the stage as he delivers his leader’s speech. With negative polls about whether voters can see him as Prime Minister been giving prominent play in the papers, the stakes for this speech have been raised. I suspect that the speech will be better delivered than last year’s—Miliband is far more comfortable when he is not behind a podium—and more tightly written. Judging by what has been briefed out in advance, we know that it also contains more concrete policies. But I expect that the speech will still set off quite the political bun fight. The Tory strategy for the next election campaign requires them to, in effect, disqualify Miliband as a potential Prime Minister.
Labour conference: Ed Miliband to announce big educational reforms (but won’t mention GCSEs)
From our UK edition
Each day of the Labour conference covers a different aspect of Britain that Ed Miliband wants to rebuild, and tomorrow's theme as the Labour leader gives his speech will be rebuilding the education system. Miliband will announce plans for a new Technical Baccalaureate which starts at 14 and runs until 18. The idea is to target those children who will not be going to university, but who, according to Miliband, do not currently have the same road map for their future as those going down an academic route. Describing these students as the 'forgotten 50 per cent', he will say: 'In the 21st century everyone should be doing some form of education up to 18, not 16. That gives us the chance and the obligation to develop a new system from 14 to 18, in particular, for vocational qualifications.
Labour conference: Chris Bryant admits Labour’s immigration policy was flawed
From our UK edition
‘Intellectual laziness’ — that’s how Chris Bryant described the left's bashing of the Tories’ tough stance on immigration. The shadow immigration minister spoke this evening of his ambition to shape a new immigration policy for Labour in the role he personally requested from Ed Miliband: ‘By the next general election, I want to build a coalition of the rational on immigration. Last time, immigration hurt our vote…we failed to explain our policy. It’s not racist to say that talking about immigration is the most important political matter we face’ In his quest for a new rational policy, Bryant presented two key messages for Labour activists to take to the doorstep in 2015.
The policy basis for Labour and Lib Dems happily sharing a bed
From our UK edition
Beyond whispering about a possible Lib-Lab pact, what actual policy evidence is there for the two parties looking to work together? Quite a lot, it turns out. The basis of a joint programme appears to be forming, with the parties already converging on a surprising number of policies. Here are some of the areas where Lib Dems and Labour would be quite comfortable with one another: Splitting up retail and investment banking Ed Miliband announced yesterday that he’d break up banks’ retail and investment operations. This policy is more associated with Vince Cable than any other politician, and the Business Secretary was a strong proponent of the plan when he was in opposition.
Labour conference: Ed Miliband’s class war video is a mistake
From our UK edition
In America, presidential candidates make films about serving in Vietnam. In Britain, Ed Miliband has made one about going to a comprehensive. If this really is the most exciting and appeal thing about him, then Labour is in some trouble. The intention of the video is clear enough: he wanted to say ‘I didn’t go to Eton’ over and over again. But do voters care? Only in Westminster is it exceptional to have gone to what Alastair Campbell called a ‘bog standard comprehensive’ and Ed Miliband would be ill-advised to claim that he won a Purple Heart of the Proletariat.
Labour conference: Chuka Umunna plays good cop with trade unions
From our UK edition
Ed Balls channelled the bad cop with the trade unions this morning, warning conference that ‘there will be difficult decisions in the future from which we will not flinch.’ This afternoon, Chuka Umunna was sent out to play the alternative good cop. The shadow business secretary spoke at a Unite fringe event this lunchtime, repeating his well-mocked line that the unions are 'wealth-creators': ‘I am totally unapologetic to say that trade unions like this one are wealth creators. We need to celebrate unions like Unite.' In return for this new-found good will, the Unite leader Len McCluskey praised Umunna’s speech as ‘first class’, stating he had ‘never heard a front bencher mention unions so many times in one speech’.
Steerpike at Labour: No such thing as a free glass of wine
From our UK edition
David Miliband blasted New Statesman columnist Mehdi Hasan's updated Ed Miliband biography yesterday afternoon: 'Judging by extracts about me in the Mail on Sunday, updates to Ed's biography should be filed in the fiction section'. The former foreign secretary took umbrage at the suggestion that he had said his brother would 'crash and burn'. And, just in case we had missed the point, he added 'i.e. made up' for good measure. Despite these manifold grievances, the elder Miliband graced the New Statesman’s Labour conference party later in the evening. He waited until Ed had done the rounds and left before entering, tieless.
Labour conference: Kindling lefty love
From our UK edition
Lovelorn lefties of the world can relax. There's finally a solution to that age-old nightmare of discovering that the person you share a pillow with has deal-breakingly different views to you on taxation. I've just been handed this flyer for the Leftwing Dating website , 'dedicated to uniting all singles passionate about creating a better world'. [caption id="attachment_8346871" align="alignnone" width="520"] Leftwing dating[/caption] To comfort any nervous would-be suitor, the picture on the leaflet and the one on the site itself couldn't be clearer. The luscious leftwing lady pictured is wearing a red jumper: she's definitely a lefty! And the couple are clinking two glasses of bubbly: this site clearly also accommodates champagne socialists.
Labour conference: Jon Cruddas to create Labour’s own Big Society project
From our UK edition
Jon Cruddas is frightened. Not of what he describes as the 'bloody big' task of leading his party's policy review, but of the future direction of the Conservative party. Throughout his lunchtime interview with James Purnell at the Labour party conference, Cruddas brought up Britannia Unchained, the latest book from a group of Conservative MPs about how Britain can become a world leader, and about what is currently holding the country back. The party's policy review chief said the vision presented by those MPs was 'quite frightening' because of its stance that the 'state is totally malign', and its support for what he described as a world where 'if you sink or fail it is because of your own calculations'.
Labour conference: The Ed Balls two-step
From our UK edition
Ed Balls’ speech was a wide-ranging affair. It started with a tribute to the Olympics and Tessa Jowell’s role in securing them, a make-nice gesture given how badly those two have got on over the years. It ended with a paean of praise to the Labour spirit of 1945. In between, it included attacks on the Liberal Democrats as the ‘same old Tories’ — Balls’ response to Sunday newspaper reports that they won’t work with him. On the economy, the Ed Balls two-step was much in evidence. He promised to spend money now, saying he’d put the as yet unknown proceeds from sale of the 4G spectrum into house-building.
Labour conference: Len McCluskey perks up delegates
From our UK edition
Labour delegates were clearly out late last night, as it took them quite a while to get going this morning. It was only when Unite general secretary Len McCluskey took to the stage in the conference hall that there was a resounding round of applause for the first time in several hours. He even garnered cheers from delegates, and a small standing ovation when he sat down from one block of seats in the hall. The reason? McCluskey was continuing his hunt for cuckoos in the Labour nest, urging Ed Miliband to abandon the policies of his New Labour predecessors. The biggest cheer from the floor came when he said this: 'We can tell the country that the next Labour government – the one all the polls are telling us people desperately want – will act.
Labour conference: Blank sheets of paper are all the rage on EU policy
From our UK edition
It's no secret that the Conservative party is in a bit of a pickle about Europe at the moment, and Douglas Alexander quite wisely chose to exploit the ravine that is ever growing between eurosceptic backbenchers and the Prime Minister in his speech this morning. But where does Labour stand? Well, that's still not entirely clear. This is what the shadow foreign secretary said about the Tories and Europe this morning: 'Just two years into Government and that’s David Cameron in a nutshell: out of touch at home; out of his depth abroad. But what’s the Conservatives’ strategy for the EU? Nothing, it’s a blank page. What's the Conservatives’ strategy for the G20? Nothing, it’s a blank page. What's the Conservatives’ strategy for the WTO?
Labour conference: Ivan Lewis fakes a battle with the Tories over aid
From our UK edition
Ivan Lewis used his speaking slot this morning to launch a series of attacks on the attitude of many Conservatives towards international development spending. 'Conference,' he said. 'It turns my stomach when I hear multi-millionaire Lord Ashcroft demanding that support for the world's poorest should be slashed. The nasty party is back. It's the same old Tories.' These are the sorts of attacks that you can imagine Labour delegates going wild for. But it was difficult to really trust that Lewis actually believed what he was saying to the hall. His speech was muted, workmanlike, and the applause dutiful. He did accept that 'we won't be able to reverse the government's decision to cut the projected aid budget by £1.7 billion'.
Ed Miliband: my two penn’orth
From our UK edition
It seems that everyone is offering Ed Miliband advice. Jonathan Freedland wrote him an alternative leader’s speech. Matthew D’Ancona urged Miliband to answer his own fundamental question: “What is the point of a Left-of-centre Labour leader with an empty wallet?” And Owen Jones urges the Labour leader to find a vision. It would be understandable if Ed Miliband was beginning to get more than a tad exasperated with all this advice. His party is united, he is ahead in the polls and his opponents are in disarray. He has already survived longer than many sage heads believed he could and is now the man most likely to be the next prime minister.
Labour conference: anti-promise Ed Balls ‘can make no commitment’ on cuts or tax
From our UK edition
Last week's Lib Dem conference dealt with a promise Nick Clegg wished he had never made. This week's Labour conference is in part about promises Ed Miliband and Ed Balls won't make at all, or at least not for a few years. The Shadow Chancellor was cagey when he appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning, saying 'I can make no commitment now to reverse any of those cuts or the tax rises, because we don't know what the economy's going to be like in two months' time let alone in two years' time when the election comes'.
Labour conference: Douglas Alexander describes ‘total unanimity’ for continued EU membership
From our UK edition
Rumours are swirling at this Labour conference that the party leadership is considering offering a referendum on Britain's relationship with the European Union. If the party did do as Jon Cruddas hinted it should over the weekend in the Telegraph, we at least know how Douglas Alexander would campaign. The shadow foreign secretary told an Open Europe fringe last night that staying in would be in Britain's interest: ‘We are struggling to sense any growth as it is, and shrinking our market from 500 million to 60 million would not to help. We should be working in the nation’s interest to return to growth.’ Alexander also made clear his regret over the way British politicians have handled Europe.