THE Times had made its mind up by Monday morning. Union Man said its first leading article, followed by Ed Miliband was the wrong choice for Labour. And the article ended: We now await tomorrow's speech with anxiety rather than expectation. It will be interesting to see today whether Ed Miliband's speech yesterday has done anything to relieve the Times's anxiety. It should have done. It was not a great piece of oratory, but that is not what was needed.
The task of Labour's new leader was to show that he is a politician of substance with a sure grasp of why the party lost five million voters at the last election and of what needs to be done both to regain their confidence and to win new supporters also. Broadly speaking he did that, displaying a welcome tone of honesty about past failures and a strong sense of optimism that under his leadership what he called the mainstream majority would see Labour as the party closest to their aspirations.
An interesting aspect of his speech was its lack of any mention of the Liberal Democrats; on the other hand Liberals of the past such as Lloyd George, Keynes and Beveridge got approving recognition.
During the leadership election campaign Mr Miliband spoke about his wish to attract Liberal Democrats disaffected by the coalition deal. Clearly, he intends to pursue this approach.
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