Miliband meets the public, and a lot of Labour members

Ed Miliband has just finished an hour and twenty minute long question and answer session. The audience was meant to be a mix of the general public and Labour members, but there seemed to be far more Labour members than anybody else.

It would be easy to take the Michael out of the whole event. The questioner who walked out as the Labour leader was trying to answer his question, Miliband’s tendency to stare into the bleachers with his hand above his eyes and the technical glitches. One could also, rightly, say that the vast majority of questions were classic lefty fare.

But there was the glimmer of something important here. There were flashes of the humour that comes across in private but not in public. In short, Miliband seemed far more himself than he did yesterday. Indeed, he repeatedly cut off attempts to end the session so he could take more questions.