Whether or not Ed Miliband’s speech was a success depends on what sort of aim he had for it: heave Labour over the general election line using his party base, or reach out to wavering swing voters by arguing that Labour has the ability to govern in the challenging circumstances that it finds itself in after the 2015 election, that it has a vision for aspirational voters, and that it really understands why its working class voters deserted it in 2010.
Let’s address the second aim first. It was not a good speech. It did not have a sufficiently well-crafted message. It did not contain stories that were sufficiently compelling.
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