Ed Miliband is back on the front foot, for now at least

There was a point in Ed Miliband’s speech on a ‘better politics’ where it became clear that for the rest of our lives we’re all going to be trapped in an endless cycle of opposition politicians announcing that they are going to forge a ‘new politics’, as though some other chap hadn’t said the same thing only a few years before. There really is nothing new under the sun.

But it would be unfair to dismiss the Labour leader’s speech as meaningless simply for saying what others have said before him: perhaps he was hoping that the goldfish bowl of the Westminster Village would turn out to contain a bunch of people with goldfish memories, too. His speech was in many ways impressive politically. He has spent the past week on the back foot over the Falkirk row, bouncing into decisions and marching largely to the tune of events and accusations from the Conservatives.