Ed Miliband's conference speech live stream

I cringed when he bought his old teacher out - like he needed proof or something, just in case we didnt believe him.

Slightly off-topic, but I have introduced my kids to this fantastic game on the UK parliament web site that opens up the world of political leadership to all ? you get to make decisions as an MP for a week:

www.parliament.uk/education/online-resources/games/mp-for-a-week/

Recommended for KS2 and KS3!

I really think that to get the best leaders, we need to open up the opportunities wider.

Apart from Ed Milliband I cannot think of one political leader who went to their local state comprehensive school. Because of this I do happen to think it is a massive deal, because it is so bloody rare. According to Pagwatch's "if kids in comps don't think they can be political leaders they must be a bit thick" theory this means that nearly all kids in comps are 'a bit thick', otherwise we would see more of them as political leaders. I do not subscribe to your theory, Pagwatch. Instead I think that there are social and cultural bars to children becoming political leaders if they don't go to private or selective schools, and one important step to breaking down these barriers is to have a political leader role model who went to a comp.

By the way, I do not accept the "it might have been a comp but it was in a nice area, and his parents were intellectuals so it doesn't count" argument. Of course it counts. He did not stand up and say "I was poor and deprived and I went to a sink school". He just said "I went to my local comprehensive school", which is a true statement that one that few political leaders can say, regardless.

Fishwife you're moving the goalposts.

You didn't mention his homelife before, you were talking about his school, and you were making it up as you went along.

Are you not big enough to say "sorry, my mistake"?

Farm not arm hehehe

Yes your right hes stright out of the chalk arm massive

He didnt live in a big house

Have nice hoildays
Or have connections many could only dream of

Fishwife that's absolute nonsense.

If you read my post above you'd see I went to the same school as the Millibands, only a few years later, so I speak from first hand experience when I say Haverstock school is absolutely what I'd call a bog-standard comp. Can't say I particularly rated the education there tbh.

There were some middle class kids there, sure, but the school is flanked by estates, and there were plenty of working class kids. (Can't believe we're arguing about this )

Primrose Hill is down the road. But Chalk Farm (where the school actually is) and Camden traditionally have a large working class population. It's certainly not not all posh houses.

You're talking out of your arse, as my school mates would have said!

mumzy there is no bog standard comp in primrose hill

He is a pratt cannot lead a dog let alone one nation

And all this i just a poor boy from a poor family shit

He harldy grew up in a estate in brixton did he

Its like saying oh yes i went to a comp and then being asked were you live oh primrose hill
The type of comps were the homes near cost 500k you might as well be at a private school

Is father had all the connections je was never gonna end up working in greggs now was he

And I bet Ed Millbrand never had to work grotty summer jobs in kitchens, factories, hotels as a student getting to know how the vast majority of the country survives, he probably spent all his time at Labour HQ. God I hate all politicians smug b***ds

I went to a bog standard comp in the inner cities and one of my classmates went on to become a major journalist on a news programme at the BBC. But her father was an emeritius professor at the university and her lifestyle and expectations were totally different from mine. I remember being coached for the Oxbridge entrance exam with her and she would quote the distinguish and often well known visitors who would frequent her parents soirees. I suspect Ed Millibrand's upbringing was like that of my famous classmate and bears little resemblance to the experience of the vast majority of people educated in comps.

Ed's speech wasn't so much about whether he's got what it takes to lead the country, but whether he can lead Labour. And I don't think he can. He's not appealing to anyone.

Shame as I thought he would be the more appealing Miliband and therefore more appealing, but he seems to have diminished not grown. Perhaps you get the wrong person when you allow the trades unions to choose.

If instead he had promised to indeed get down just for the funk of it, I would have been right there.

I think that if there are indeed children at state schools who imagine that you have to go to private school to make it as a politician then they probably have bigger issues to worry about. Possibly being a bit thick would be one.

The son of a fabulously wealthy man who was smoothed into Oxford and never intended to be anything other than a career politician trying to pretend he is just like me makes me want to weep.

The ridiculous emphasis on the schooling of forty something men in politics is such a waste of time.

At my comp we knew the posh kids, the rich kids were nothing like us. They were in a completely different world with their extra homework,piano lessons, weekend trips to France and skiing holidays.

Really. Stop it.

Not least because 'look, I am just like you. I am not one of Lord Snooty's pals' seemed to be the thrust of it. Look at Britain. Look at the holy fuck of a thing we are at the moment and 'ooo-er but just look at where they went to school' is all he has got.

The instinct to have a image to rail against is fine. I can understand the urge. But it is just sneering at something that to be honest neither he nor Cameron nor anyone else actually chose.
Is he actually saying, when you really drill it down, that if his parents with all their millions had chosen instead to send him to Eton then his moral compass, his compassion and empathy would never have existed?
Would he have been destined to be a cunt had he just gone into a different school.
Does he really want to tell kids in a slightly crappy school that they will never leave that behind. It always must define you.

I went to a comp. I'm lovely. My dh went to a very expensive private school. He is lovely too. Yet Dullard is trying to make us slice the nation into plucky state school kids nd selfish private school cunts.

It pisses me off massively. Lazy and thick.

Judder I think well off middle-class kids do ok in a comp, because they have other resources.
Teenagers from deprived backgrounds not so much, although there are obviously many exceptions.

And one good speech does not make strong opposition...

Watched the whole thing through last night on the daily politics. He looked far too over rehearsed as if he was in a school play all the body language, relaxed jokey ennui seemed put on. Contrast this with Boris Johnson who really is a natural at this sort of thing and can instinctively connect with the general public.

For ed, a good speech. But as Cameron shows very well, a good speech does not make a good prime minister. Think support is symbolic of people getting rather fed up of Tory rhetoric and under performance. Whether that translates to support for labour is to early to say.

As for give, another politician the politicos love, but the gen public distrust him, so will be interesting to see how they play him next week.

I watched Ed. Pathetic.

It was an amazing speech, which is good for everyone: strong opposition is healthy for the country.

The class stuff was a response, I guess, to that minister who called a policeman a 'pleb' and got away with it from Cameron. Outrageous!

Why shouldn't Mr Miliband be proud to go to his local inner London comp? It sends a message to children at state schools around the country that you do not have to go to a private school or a selective school to become a political leader, which they could be forgiven for thinking if Milliband had not stood up and said that.

I think I do, too.

I think I love Ed.

Gove???!!! Oh, claig, you do make me larf.

Still, he'd probably give us all a bible. We can burn them for warmth

'I have lost the will to live.'

garlic, wait for next week. Gove has yet to speak, that might well be a game changer.

Oh, I'm too irate to read & reply properly.

Miliband sounded exactly like Cameron. I'm fairly certain he used some of the same phrases; the ones about having purpose, being true to himself & so on.
Clegg appears to be positioning his party as a handy leaning-post for whichever other party gets 1 more vote.
I noticed a throwaway line in the commentary: "80% of the cuts are still to come."
I don't think any of these lookalike numpties have enough balls to deal with the problems for their electorate's benefit.
I have lost the will to live.
:(

Talkin I think you are spot on with that.

It is utterly ridiculous that we now have a situation where the political classes are arguing amongst themselves about who is the least privileged.