One Nation is absolutely the right framing for Ed Miliband. In a single phrase the Labour leader has set out a positive vision for Britain, projected a division with the Tories on their own turf and set out a challenge to the Labour Party.
Miliband set out his vision, aping Disraeli, as:
“A vision of Britain where patriotism, loyalty, dedication to the common cause courses through the veins of all and nobody feels left out, it was a vision of Britain coming together to overcome the challenges we face.”
This is clearer and more positive than anything he’s said before and builds on the optimism in Britain following the summer Olympics. It will help address head on poll findings that voters think he lacks a clear sense of the Britain he wants to create.
By borrowing language more closely associated with the Tories, Miliband sought to make himself the heir to a popular tradition of Conservative thought in a similar way to Cameron audaciously painting himself as the “heir to Blair”. In doing so Miliband set out a clear dividing line with the Tories in a subtler way than Gordon Brown, his former boss, could have managed.
This dividing line, surely the theme of the next two-and-a-half-years, is that the government is out of touch and unable to understand the plight of millions of families up and down the country who are seeing energy, petrol and transport prices increase while their salaries stay flat or fall. Osborne’s 50p tax cut has given him the perfect example to support this narrative even if Miliband may get a little flak for claiming all millionaires will get a £40,000 tax cut (it will only be those who earn a million).
Finally, the One Nation theme sets out a challenge to the Labour party. Miliband was explicit Labour had to be the party of the south as well as the north, the party of the private as well as the public sector, and not representative of a single sectional group. That is pretty transparent code a “core vote strategy” is not what he sees as the path to power. His appeal directly to the people who voted for Cameron last time around shows he understands Labour cannot win a majority on disaffected Lib Dems alone.
The only criticism that can be levelled at Miliband is he didn’t address the fiscal crisis Labour will inherit because of the double-dip recession – but his shadow chancellor touched on this yesterday as he himself has done in other speeches.
He will need to come back to this as the election approaches, but if he does that and can make the One Nation theme sing on the doorstep, he may find himself on the steps of No 10.
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20 Responses to “Lab 2012: Miliband’s One Nation vision takes fight to Cameron and challenges Labour”
All Thats Left
Funny how everyone seems to have been impressed with Ed Miliband’s speech apart from the Blairite wing of the Labour Party! We analyse some of the carping in the following piece: http://www.allthatsleft.co.uk/2012/10/ed-milibands-speech-what-is-it-with-the-blairites/#comments
Newsbot9
There’s a mistake in the article title. It should read “fights alongside” rather than ”
takes fight to”. It’s an endorsement of the austerity and destruction of the country’s social infrastructure, and cuts which by design cannot end,
Newsbot9
Ah yes, if you’re a centralist who’s rejected the left, I’m sure you’re cheering his plan to ensure that the social class divisions are to be hardened, and that the poor and disabled will continue to be punished for existing.
It’s clear he’s talking about even more punishment for unemployed people who don’t jump into the first minimum wage job, looks like attacking the minimum wage for disabled people too…
Newsbot9
True, he’s writing a lot more to them with the corporation tax cuts.
Selohesra
Ah that’s right change the subject Botty. Not only is he disingenuous on the tax rate facts he also seems to confuse assets with income in determining who is a millionaire which might explain why Brown & co f’d up the economy so much. I’m prepared to believe Chucka is too thick to know the difference but not Ed – like him or not (and I don’t) I think he is actually quite smart – which leaves the only conclusion being that he is fundamentally dishonest.