Why so Academic, Ed?

Ed Miliband’s speech today at Policy Network was interesting, but not punchy. Thoughtful, but not attention grabbing. Wonky, rather than political.

Of course that’s not particularly surprising – Miliband was speaking to an assorted bunch of academics, think tank wonks, journalists, economists and even the odd blogger. But for a speech that was heavily trailed and ended up – albeit briefly – on the TV news channels, it lacked punch. It was more academic lecture than political speech. And you may well say, why shouldn’t Ed make academic thoughtful speeches? Well that would be fine if Ed were an academic, but he’s not – he’s a politician. And he needs to remember that.

The message delivered today (“predistribution”) has potential – the poorest people in society would surely rather have money in their own hands than rely on redistributive hand outs from the state to compensate for poverty pay. Likewise an economy that pays – at the very least – a wage that people can live on, is a society where the culture of attacking “welfare scroungers” and attacks on housing benefit, for example, are less pronounced, which sounds like a far better society to me.

Yes the message has potential, but it doesn’t quite feel like Miliband has properly, rhetorically fleshed it out yet. Perhaps, like squeezed middle and predators/producers he’s planning on going out on a limb and waiting for the country to follow him – although there’s only so many times Ed can be his own policy outrider….

We didn’t get much more than was in the pre-briefing today, although we now know that Miliband believes “redistribution will always remain neccessary”, something that needed clarifying considering some of the holes in predistribution (essentially, it wouldn’t work for everyone). But in the end the downbeat delivery detracted somewhat from what may have been a rather radical message.

Miliband’s tone was far better – as is so often the case with the Labour leader – when it came to the Q&A. He was upbeat, engaging and even witty. It’s what he’s often like in private too, yet sometimes, for whatever reason, that seems to drain away at times when he makes a formal speech. Perhaps – as someone noted in a comment on an earlier post – it’s to do with the way his speeches are laid out autocue style that forces a more rigid, less comfortable delivery.

Regardless of what it is that is causing Ed’s delivery difficulties, Labour Party conference is certainly no place for an academic treatise. By the time we get to Manchester, Labour’s “new agenda” will need to be Political, with a great big P at the front, if he’s going to reach the people in the hall, nevermind those watching at home.

If he can manage that, then this “new agenda” might have some legs. If not, it’ll be Labour’s forgotten agenda soon enough.