Ed Miliband’s unlucky conference

Ed Miliband is not having much luck this conference. First, there’s the fact that it has come straight after the Scottish referendum, making it feel a bit small. Second, other stories have kept intruding on and overshadowing conference. Finally, Miliband’s managed to forget two of the most important sections of his speech, the parts on the deficit and immigration.

The missing paragraphs dominated, to Miliband’s audible irritation, his interview on the Today Programme. Miliband explained that he hadn’t meant to cut them out from the speech, but that they had just got lost as he delivered it. Now, to some extent, this is a process story. But it does allow the Tories to depict the Labour leader as the man who didn’t even mention the deficit and forgot about immigration.