Ed Miliband's conference speech live stream

[FrancesMumsnet]

Live stream of Ed Miliband's speech here if you're interested:

I was pleasantly surprised. He is not famed for being an engaging communicator but I was really glued to tday's speech, so much so I made myself let for the nursery run! I think we needed to know more about him and we got that; we needed to feel he was on our side and we got that too. Yes, maybe we needed more concrete policy -although I'd rather they get it right form2015 than get some cheap quick wins in for every party conference, local elections, etc.

PS don't buy that it was ad libbed in places, but blinking heck he's got a good memory. Must have taken aaaaaages to learn all that -he should enjoy having that much time on his hands before he's running the government!!

The problem with Ed Milliband is he is so disingenious. I don't buy his "I went to a comp and as a result are with the people" speech. His school was in Hampstead and his dad was a socialist millionaire. Also the fact that he and his brother tried to avoid inheritance tax through some dodgy loophole and went to Oxford with less than impressive A level grades shows he is one of the elite and his family had enough links with people in high places.

Both my parents are immigrants Both dh and I went to bog standard comps and through hard work went to university and are now both professionals. We have chosen to send ds1 to public school for secondary because of the mess labour left the state education system. Ed Milliband and Labour will not be getting my vote.

Really lacked content - just repeating the mantra 'one nation' is no substitute for policies. In addition, the opening of the speech was full of sickening sentimentality - the bit about his son was particularly cringeworthy.
As if he should be elected just because he went to a comp - is that really any different to Cameron thinking he was 'born to rule'?

Ed Milliband lives in a massive house near Hampstead Heath as well - it would definitely have cost seven figures. I'm not that sure he does know how real people live and the fact that he has spent all his life in politics or academia doesn't help.

Agree with mumzy- why on earth he is pulling the "I went to a comp" card?

1. It's irrelevant
2. He's the son of a professor - hardly " one of us"
3. He's like all those new labour twats who will spend a million on a house in a good catchment area just so they can say " oh we would never send our child to private school"

I actually liked the fella before all this.

Obviously i would never be writing a speech but i can tell you now, if i was i cannot imagine my then three year old son saying "you cant do this on your own mummy" . Dont get me wrong my son is very bright, but really!!!!!! Really?. Those words dont sound like the words of a three year old. I was cringing.

He reminds me of Will from The Inbetweeners. I can just imagine him turning up with a briefcase on his first day at Ridge Park Comp.

I find flogging the comp education very disingenuous. Lots of people are state educated and still turn out to be heartless capitalists - I don't see it automatically makes you a socialist hero.

Now if any of these politicians eg. Clegg, Cameron, Osbourne, Gove, Balls, Milliband sent their dc to my local tough inner city comp with 48% fsm then I would feel they are with the people and admire them for it. But sending them to highly selective state schools such as The Oratory, the grammars or where the catchment houses cost at least £1M, which most people have no hope of getting heir dc into is totally disingenuous IMO

Ed Miliband is just another one of the elites. He's just a different sort of elite to David Cameron. They are all elites, standing for much the same thing. Its all so confusing now. One Nation Tories. One Nation Labour. Red Tory. Blue Labour.

Ever so bloody long wasn't it

I got a bit bored

I hated the dinosaurs bit

I'm going with the theory that labour don't want to win the next election

I think he's quite refreshing in his own way

At least he isn't son of Blair (and ergo grandson of Thatcher)

Oh come on, some people on here woudn't be happy no matter where he went to school. As for the poster who thought him getting into Oxford implied some sort of 'friends in high places', that's nonsense - he's about my age, and when I went to Oxford, 2Es was the standard offer - so anyone could get in ith less than stellar A Levels - no string-pulling required.

I don#t see why it is regarded as OK to blame for the guy for having a dad who was an academic - his dad didn't get that by connections, he arrived as an immigrant and presumably got it on merit - not Ed's 'fault' his dad was bright and hard-working and I cannot see why this is supposed to put voters off him?

No one is blaming the guy for having a brilliant internationally renowned father. It just makes his claim to be mr regular a bit hard to swallow.

He is using his comp education, immigrant background to make out he has had to overcome obstacles whereas in fact his upbringing was pretty priviledged. He has little in common with people like me whose parents having arrived in the UK with 3 dc lived in grotty housing, worked in unskilled poorly paid jobs surviving hand to mouth and had no choice of which schools their kids went to. I would respect him more if he just said " I had a normal comfortable upbringing went to a decent school and this is what I wish for the people of the UK who currently don't have that" but this of course does not make headlines.

He's not claiming to be 'Mr Regular' whatever that means just claiming - truthfully - to have gone to a comp and mixed with ordinary kids not just super-rich kids. He does actually know how ordinary people live even if yes, his childhood was not ordinary

Far from claiming to be 'Mr Regular' he talks in the speech about having famous political figures round the kitchen table as a kid. Hard;y ordinary - he acknowledges this.

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

Country

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.

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.

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

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.

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)

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

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.