Ed Miliband finds a voice

[Hopeless Romantic]

By Jove, I think he's got it! Like Eliza Doolittle in reverse, Ed Miliband today set aside his refined, north London prose and began to converse with the nation in a language a majority of them could understand. Labour's leader has at last found a voice.

His speech to London community activists will not receive universal acclaim. Any Labour member who does not feel a flutter of discomfort at the targeting of those at the bottom of the income scale for "not showing responsibility" and "shirking their duty to each other" is, frankly, not in the right political party. But as Sunday's newspaper headlines cruelly reminded him, it's not Miliband's job to comfort his own members. It's his job to reach out and connect with the wider electorate, and his demand for responsibility across the social scale will resonate.

We'll hear a lot in the comings hours about how today's speech forms part of a master plan, a strategy Labour's leader and advisers always had nestling in their back pockets. It's not. It's part a reaction to the recent negative media coverage, and part a response to the growing realisation that Miliband was failing to cut through.

more... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/13/ed-miliband-speech-labour-responsibility

[non sociopath skin]

1. ... and it got all of 20 seconds coverage on ITV's evening news.

Of course, they had to make room for an extended interview with that nice Mr. Cameron about how he's single-handedly sorting out Africa.

The Skin

[T_i_B]

2. Not exactly impressed

David Cameron has his "Big Society", Nick Clegg has "alarm clock Britain", Ed Miliband has the "squeezed middle". Every party has its vacuous meaningless buzz phrase. At the very least it's back to the old soundbite politics.

And then there's some of the substance. Is it right that Ed Miliband wants to give priority on council housing to those with jobs? If so, way to go, Ed. Let's exclude some of the most vulnerable in society from social housing. x(