Ed Miliband's conference speech live stream

I really hate all this class war stuff. It's not OK to judge people on who their parents were and what school they went to. It's fine to say "my parents had their struggles and I learned ..." but to suggest that you are a better or worse person or politician because you went to a certain sort of school or university is bollocks. Milliband is absolutely not a man of the people. It's pathetic that he tries to be. Yes, he went to a state secondary but the state secondary my kids will go to is a hell of a lot better than the private school I had a scholarship to as a teenager. Mind you, it was streets ahead of my local comp so I am not complaining.

I mean, looking at other current and recent leaders:
Nick Clegg is from an immigrant family and married to a (brilliant and beautiful) foreigner
Michael Howard's family were immigrants
John Major had a crap education
Neil Kinnock was a bit thick but a lovely boyo (oops ;) )

Or the speech was such a no hope that Daily Fail readers felt reassured

bread, you are right, the Mail gives the speech a good writeup, and teh best rated comments of readers all support Miliband, which is a bit surprising and does make you wonder if Labour conference attendees have been hitting the Mail's green arrows.

It shows how unpopular the Coalition is becoming.

"I'll bet my bottom dollar that Ed Milliband didn't go to the same kind of sink comp that I and my contemporaries attended."

I went to Haverstock school, a few years later than the Milibands (I'm 37). And it was a pretty rubbish school IMO when I was there. I have fond memories of continually bunking off, smoking spliffs, mucking around. I was considered one of the good pupils as I was polite and bright. Very few of the teachers reported non-attendance (you knew which ones did!) It was a school in crisis with demoralised teachers IIRC.

It did have a good reputation, a few years before (which is how I ended up there) and I imagine it was much better when Miliband was there, before it went downhill. However, I don't imagine the make-up of the school changed much - when I started there it was still coasting on its previous reputation.

There was a genuines mix of races and classes. Sure there were middle class kids there, but equally the school is flanked by estates and there were loads of working class kids there too, it was a proper comprehensive.

I'm sad I missed the speech as I saw a clip of my old school playground on the advert for it, and I was looking forward to reminiscing :)

claig - the Mail readers love the speech - quoted in full

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2211754/Ed-Milibands-speech-Labour-conference-accuses-Tories-incompetent-touch-U-turning-make-miserable-shower.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

so that's the election sewn up if you're right!

Not leaked against. I can't remember it exactly, but I think he may have been given information that turned out to be wrong early on.

Edgar, Gove was new in the job, and it looks like he was leaked against early on. But, he is made of stern stuff. He is one of the Tory stars.

No, the Tories are the ones who are really from another planet.

I was at Oxford with George Osborne. Didn't know him or of him, even though he did my subject, in my year - he was a nothing - not a big fish at all.) While I was there, the student newspaper, Cherwell, always had a gossip column - written obviously by different student journos each term. Usually, it featured well-known figures likes student politicos or well-known thesps - but one term the journo writing it was (in retrospect, i wondered what the hell was going on at the time) a member of the Bullingdon Club. There was a whole term where the gossip column read like something out of Jeeves and Wooster - it was all Lord So-And_so and the Hon Such-and-Such have been very naughty boys and pulled their trousers down at Restaurant X, ha ha ha, oh it was such a scream and Biffy Throgmorton hit a porter! bla bla bla...

It made no sense at the time as - contrary to stereotype - Oxford is nothing like that at all and I never met a single Bullingdon type nor were their activities of the slightest interest to anyone outside their very small social circle.

Now wish i'd kept copies of the papers as the miscreants were all named and doubtless included one Hon George Osborne and several Tory Party donors - would make interesting reading now.

So no, they are nothing like normal people...

claig i see the leakage from education as a weakness on the part of the minister - Gove needs to find out who's doing that and give them the boot.

He could also use coming up with some better ideas, rather than recycling old ones.

Yes, I agree that Gove has had a tough time, but he is so good that he has risen way above it. There has been a downward slide ever since the threatened fuel strikes, with one mistake after another handing open goals to Labour.

Now Labour think that they only have to attract the 'squeezed middle', to sell the 'one nation' concept and claim that the Tories are for two nations, in order to roll back into power.

i think there has been some sabotage - from within perhaps - certainly the Education department hasn't been watertight and you have to wonder why.

the amount of leakage and going-off-half-cocked has been really damaging to govt credibility. They need their house in order.

And they just can't afford to have the chief Whip not behaving himself.

Gordon Brown might have been a known bully, but that seemed to have been kept under wraps for a long time....it looks like all mistakes are getting air time.

Brown lost the election when he called a member of the public a bigoted woman. If teh Tories commit a similar faux pas and call the public plebs or anything similar, the public will turf them out on their ear and welcome Miliband in.

A few faux pas by the Tories a few weeks before the election, leaked condescension towards the public and they will lose the election. The public does not like being insulted openly. Ed is a good man and Labour do have a greater affinity with the majority of the public, so if they court the 'squeezed middle' and if the Tories drop some clangers, then Labour could easily sweep back in.

i should probably say that i would be unlikely to vote labour anyway, and it really wouldn't matter in the constituency i live in if i did.

Ed isn't courting me. But he's got a hard sell with that voice if he wants to bring back disgruntled Labour grass roots by trying to tell them he's just like them. He's got a harder sell still if he's actually going to support what the ConDems are doing whilst making noises against them at every point -

Where's the credibility?

What's his USP - why should people vote for him ?

Let's wait and see what the Mail says - that is the people's paper. I'm not sure which paper Thrasher prefers to read, but my guess is it is probably the Telegraph.

Funnily enough the Tory papers seemed to quite rate his speech - the Telegraph is quite complimentary.

I think teh 'one nation' thing is an attempt to appeal to Tory voters and get Daily Mail readers onside. He is saying that Labour is patriotic, there are Union Jacks everywhere, he is courting teh 'squeezed middle' and saying they have been treated unfairly. He is saying that employers should not undercut workers by paying immigrants below minimum wage. This is all good stuff as Labour hs been considered weak on some of these areas and some Tory voters have felt that Labour is not on the side of hardworking 'Middle England'.

He is saying that Labour and himself are not like Thrasher and those lot, and he has a point there.

But, crucially, this is not enough, to swing over Tory voters and teh 'squeezed middle'. He has to do much more and come up with more substantial policies to help teh 'squeezed middle'. The public knows that he is probably a nicer chap than Thrasher, but that is not enough to get its vote.

One nation? Eh no, there are four separate nations which make up the UK.

Hate this school rubbish.
We should not discriminate against anyone because of race,religion etc but somehow which school someone went to is fair game.
Whatever you think of their policies Cameron,Osborne etc can't help their education.
Nor can Harriet Harman,Tony Blair,Ed Balls etc.[privately educated all)

Yeah, he went to the comp nearest to Primrose Hill. Mind you, it is quite a diverse place, N-Dubz and Oona King when there too I believe.

MNHQ - I didn't put a link in my post above, so I don't know why one is there

He is as atypical of a "normal" person as any of the Conservatives. Don't be fooled by his "I'm one of you" bollocks - he's sat at home sneering at your average Asda Shopper along with the rest of them, probably more so given that lefty intellectual perch he sits on.

Labour chose the wrong Milliband.

Now they pay the price.

I don't know why they have chose the 'one nation' thing - an appeal to nationalism? Inclusion of the kingdoms (as if left to English constituencies alone, no labour government!)?

great way to remind the public that the Conservatives have given us Jewish, as well as female leaders by referencing Benjamin Disraeli.

this year The Big Society (a very woolly idea when it first arrived) seems to have gained some momentum and to be rather more zeitgeisty than it was two years ago. This 'One nation' thing seems to be Red Eds counter attack, yet as was the problem with 'Big society' at the offing-point - i really don't get what he means by it in concrete policy terms.

in actual fact he seemed to not be offering anything different to the Condems on key policy issues.

the one bit of the speech i thought hit home was the negative bit about the 'envelope back' nature of policy making by the incumbents - however it looks somewhat like Red Ed could apply the same criticism to his own presentation this time out.

Country

He does trott out the "comp school/ immigrant background tale" on an annual basis and it is wearing thin. He should concentrate on telling us what he is going to do for the out try instead