Miliband tries to get his message heard

Ed Miliband is trying to do something interesting today. He is attempting to answer the question, ‘what’s the point of Labour when there’s no money left to spend?’

This is the problem that Miliband has been grappling with since winning the leadership and there’s no easy answer to it. It seems that today Miliband will give us more of a sense of the ‘new economy’ which he wants to see in this country. The test of the speech will be whether it gets beyond generalities about a long-term vision for an economy that is ‘fairer’.

The challenge for Miliband will be to make his subtle message heard above the chatter about his leadership which so dominated his Today Programme interview. As one colleague said to me just now, Miliband’s problem is summed up by the fact that he goes on the Today Programme and is asked — unfairly — if he’s too ugly to be PM.