Ed Miliband’s speech to the people’s policy forum

I want to start with a big thank you to all of you.

For taking the time to be with us, to talk about the future of our country

We’ve been holding events like this all around this country

Not on this scale – this is the largest question and answer session that certainly we’ve undertaken and that any political party has ever undertaken.

Why have we been doing this?

Because as a party that lost a General Election ten months ago, I thought it was right that we spend the first part of our time in opposition talking to you.

Listening to you.

Listening to your concerns.

And that’s why I’m not going to give you a long speech today.

I just want to make a few short introductory remarks, because I want most of the time today to be for you so you can ask me questions, make comments about what you’ve already heard today about what you think we need to be doing as a political party and about your hopes, your concerns for the country.

So let me just say a few things by way of introduction.

About three big challenges that I think our country faces.

The first is what I call the cost of living crisis facing families in this country.

And you know, a few months ago I talked about the idea of the squeezed middle and people said they didn’t quite know what that meant.

I think a few months on people do understand what it meant

And I think families on lower and middle incomes up and down this country always knew what I was talking about.

Because people took for granted for decades in Britain that we’d see rising living standards and rising incomes.

Not necessarily every year but over time

But what we’ve seen happen over the last few of years, and it didn’t start with this government, is people’s livi ng standards squeezed.

Those at the top doing okay, moving away from the rest.

Those in the middle, those on lower incomes increasingly squeezed.

Now it didn’t start with this government but I fear they are making it worse.

Because with decisions they are making on VAT, tax credits, they don’t seem to understand the struggle that ordinary families are facing.

They don’t seem to understand the struggle to make ends meet for people to get by.

What does that mean for us as a political party?

It means we’ve got to take very seriously how we create the jobs of the future in this country.

So yes, if you go to university, you can get a good job and good wages.

But yes, also if you don’t go to university there are those good jobs to give you a secure wage.

And also we must have a tax and benefits system that properly supports families.

The second issue I want to draw your attention to is what I call the promise of Britain.

It’s the idea that the next generation should do better than the last.

I think it’s what we all want for our own kids.

It’s what we want for our families.

When I think about my parents two refugees from the Nazis.

They came here with nothing.

And they built a secure and stable home for me and my brother.

They wanted me to do better than they’ve done

And that’s been possible because of the security provided by Britain.

I think that’s what we want for our own kids.

That’s what we want for our grandkids.

I think it’s actually what we want for the country as a whole.

And when you ask people today do they think the next generation is going to do better than the last fewer than one in ten people think they will.

Now that says something about our country.

About the direction of our country.

Again it didn’t start with this Government.

But I fear they are making it worse.

Because think of what they are imposing on the next generation.

Just think of an eighteen year old today.

It could be your son or daughter.

They’re seeing the end of Educational Maintenance Allowances, that helped them stay on in school or college.

They’re seeing the trebling of tuition fees.

They’re seeing the end of help for the young unemployed.

All changes which, to me, betray the idea of the British promise.

What can we do?

In the policies we pursue we must always, always, make sure that we remember the next generation.

And the priority of the British promise.

That’s why we said instead of cutting taxes for the banks, as the Government is doing this year, they should be putting a tax on bankers bonuses to help the young unemployed back to work, to build new houses in this country, to provide jobs for young people and to help enterprise.

The third challenge I want to discuss with you today is the challenge of how we secure strong communities.

We all care about making a living.

We all care about the bottom line.

But if we think about our own lives, we care about so much more than that.

We care about time with family and friends.

We care about the communities we live in and the communities our children grow up in.

And we care about the local institutions that really matter, that define the character of our communities.

The local post office, what the local high street is like, the local children’s centre, the library and the big national institutions that matter a lot to us, like the National Health Service.

Now, the changes we see in our communities, they didn’t start under this Government.

They started before.

But again, I worry that they are being made worse.

That a lot of the things we value; the librar y, the Sure Start centre, a lot of these are under threat.

We must be as a Party the defenders of these local institutions.

It’s not conservative to think that we should preserve, protect and defend these local institutions.

There is one other thing I want to raise.

I grew up in the 1980s

My great fear is that the government is repeating the mistakes of the past by dividing our country again.

David Cameron said that “we are all in this together”

But it just doesn’t feel like that.

Too often it feels like what he is doing is practising the politics of division.

Most of the country that never caused the financial crisis is paying the price of it, while bankers get tax cuts and more bonuses.

People in jobs are being told to resent people on benefits.

Private sector workers are being told to resent those in the public sector.

Young people are being told that they won’t get the same life chan ces as their parents.

I’m afraid I don’t believe these policies can unify the country.

So it falls to all of us to seek to find ways to rebuild and unify Britain.

Now, how do we do that?

Well, I believe that actually there are a common set of interests a big coalition of people who believe in quite similar things.

Tomorrow you will know, there is a big march in London.

Mums from the surestart centre in Hampshire

Midwives from the hospital in Kingston

Small business owners from Liverpool

Policemen and women not just policing the march, but marching themselves.

They are, we are, the mainstream majority.

They are saying they want a Britain that is pulling together not pulled apart.

Our job, as the Labour Party, is to unify the country.

They believe that yes, we’ve got to cut the deficit, but it’s not the only thing that matters in our society.

Because other things matter too.

Making sure that lower and middle income families can get on and do well for themselves.

Making sure the promise of Britain is kept for the next generation.

Making sure we have, and preserve, the things that matter in communities.

That’s what I want my Party to be about.

That’s the journey I want us to go on over the coming years.

And that’s what I hope we can talk about today.