Politics just got more interesting. Ed Miliband’s speech today showed why the Labour party picked him for the leadership and not his brother. It tied his background to his political project, crafting a secular version of tikkun olam in a powerful fusion of biography, populism and political clothes-stealing.
‘One nation Labour’ is Miliband’s new political project. It is a deliberate attempt to steal this label from the Tories, to claim that the 50p tax cut shows they are now the party of rich. Miliband’s talk of David Cameron writing £40,000 cheques to millionaires might be factually dubious in the extreme. But it is politically potent.
Perhaps, the most important thing about the speech, though, was that Miliband looked comfortable and confident.
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