Do the public agree with Ed after all?

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

We’ve spent many months discussing negative polling that suggests that the two Eds are losing the argument on the economy, but there may at last be some good news for Miliband. Two of the lines from his speech that have been picked over in detail since Tuesday “fast-buck capitalists” and “predators, not producers” have been subjected to polling by YouGov. The YouGov panel was asked if they agreed with Miliband’s assertion that Britain was dominated by such people. The topline figures are:

55% Agree, 26% Disagree, 19% Not Sure

That sounds like resounding backing for Ed’s argument – and it’s even more impressive when you see that it’s backed across all age, gender and regional breakdowns.

Part of the problem with Ed’s speech though, was – as Anthony Painter argued – that it was “a mist, a fog, smoke on the water, a deep blue haze”. In short, it was hard to know what we were meant to take away from it. Was his talk of predators a key message or speech padding? That was unclear – although surely such an incendiary statement wasn’t included without at least some thought.

Miliband’s task now is to identify what from this intellectual and diverse/patchy speech is worth pursuing, and quickly…