Tag Archives: labour conference 2014

No wow factor from Ed Miliband as he forgets part of his speech

Joe Otten has already given you his inimitable take on Ed Miliband’s speech. I do love it when he gets cheeky.

I thought I’d stick my oar in as well with a few not quite so witty observations.

Six days ago, I was lucky enough to see Gordon Brown make one of the most incredible speeches I have ever heard. It had some welly behind it. It was absolutely superb. Close to the top of the list of things I never thought I’d say is that Gordon gave me goosebumps, but it really was electric. It had the melody that the Better Together campaign had been lacking, although it was definitely more Motorhead than Idina Menzel. Maybe it spooked Ed, because yesterday he forgot to thank Gordon for the role he’d played in the campaign to keep the country together.

Now Ed, shall we say, doesn’t quite pack the same punch. Today he spoke for far too long. It was all very earnest and it had a theme of Together that kind of worked, but it had no energy behind it. It had all the passion of the slogan of this year’s conference, the stultifying “Labour’s Plan for Britain’s Future”. I mean, 8 months out from an election you would assume they had one. Although Ed Balls seemed to spend half his speech yesterday apologising for everything from the 10p tax rate to their failure to regulate the banks – and now they’re asking for another 10 years to fix the country?

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 35 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Jack Nicholls
    David, given the last few years, I don't think we can assert that charisma (Johnson) or attempts to force charisma (Starmer) are necessarily desirable qualities...
  • David Le Grice
    I guess it's better to run an MP than someone with no profile but she's not exactly our most Charismatic or inspiring option. Surely Bobby Dean would be a more ...
  • Jason Connor
    Excellent and a good speaker. Highly admired in Richmond and would certainly get my vote...
  • Richard Whelan
    Good luck Sarah. I wish you every success in your campaign....
  • Peter Davies
    Simon Hughes was an MP when he stood. He got our best result....