Miliband’s speech showed he couldn’t care less about leading ‘one nation’

I think I’m about the only journalist to have watched Ed Miliband’s speech and think it wasn’t awful. Here in Manchester, the consensus seems to be that this was as bad as a speech could be. And, admittedly, even I was tweeting rude things about it all of the way through (since when does anyone need a 10-year plan? Britain won a world war in six years).

You may not like the politics but his speech was intellectually coherent, even pugnacious in parts. Sure, it was about an hour too long and had some worrying lacunas. His decision not to mention the economy was wise because he has nothing to say. There was no mention of ‘one nation’ because he has evidently decided not to be a ‘one nation’ leader – he wants to be divisive, and beat up the rich. Hedge funds are apparently being singled out for punishment: why? Doesn’t he know that they played no role in the crash? It doesn’t matter: they seem to be prosperous, and that’s frowned upon under Red Ed.