It’s good to see Ed taking a leaf out of Margaret Thatcher’s book. Going on the intellectual offensive was how – in 1986 – the Tory party turned the tables on Neil Kinnock the first time and overhauled Labour’s poll lead. A barrage of big speeches with big ideas at the Tories’ 1986 conference revived their brand by showing that they were energetic, engaged and excited about the future. (The speeches, by the way, are still worth a read for the sheer breadth and verve of the thinking).
Ed has planned a summer of speeches – and he is right: politics abhors a vacuum. If we don’t talk about ourselves and our dreams for Britain then others will talk about us and distort what we stand for. Ed kicked the mini-campaign off today with a hugely important speech. The one he had to make. For all the backbiting within the parliamentary Labour party about him – and there is plenty, when there should be none – there is one big and real question about Miliband. Can he seal the deal with the voters? The public like Labour’s policies; can they learn to love Ed? The Tories have thought for the last four years that their secret weapon is the assertion that ‘Ed Miliband does not look like a prime minister’. This has always been a contestable assertion – today Ed goes for it with all guns blazing.
It’s worth quoting him at length:
David Cameron is a very sophisticated and successful exponent of an image-based politics. He made his name as leader of the opposition for some fantastic photos, like hanging out with huskies in the Arctic Circle.
Even my biggest supporters would say I haven’t matched him on that. It is not what I care most about. And it’s not where my talents lie – as you may have noticed.
I am not from central casting. You can find people who are more square-jawed, more chiselled, look less like Wallace. You could probably even find people who look better eating a bacon sandwich. If you want the politician from central casting, it’s just not me, it’s the other guy. If you want a politician who thinks that a good photo is the most important thing, then don’t vote for me.
But I believe that people would quite like somebody to stand up and say there is more to politics than the photo op.
This is great. It is honest in two ways. For one thing, it is authentic – it is who Ed is. For another, it is an admission – he can’t compete with Cameron in a competition to be smooth and telegenic. This is important because in politics sometimes you have to give a little to get a lot. Always admit to the public when they have a genuine niggle in their mind about you, because if you don’t it can become a blockage, a permanent obstacle to them supporting you.
The speech is great – read it all. And it has a wonderful pledge – to be a prime minister who doesn’t leave decency at the door in Downing Street.
Now he just has to make sure every summer speech is up to his standard.
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The Tories are in tangles about Europe and facing the brutal reality that you can’t abuse the European Union and its institutions loud and long and then expect to receive a plum job for your nominee. While we are all enjoying this, let’s celebrate a great Labour achievement in Europe – Cathy Ashton’s time as the EU’s ‘foreign minister’, or, to give her the formal title, ‘The High Representative of the Union on Foreign Affairs and National Security’. When she was appointed in 2009 there was much cynical and downright disrespectful coverage in the papers. Having seen Cathy’s work at close hand as minister in the Lords and in the wider PLP I knew that she was being seriously underestimated. But even I had no idea how brilliantly she would do in the job, how brightly she would shine. Last year’s agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme would not have happened without Barack Obama, but could not have happened without the EU either. Cathy’s role in that has never been fully celebrated – not least because she is a modest politician, not one given to boasting about herself. So let me boast on her behalf – she has had the most successful post-government career of any Labour cabinet minister. And she still has another big job in her – are you listening, Ed?
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John McTernan is former political secretary at 10 Downing Street and was director of communications for former prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard. He writes The Last Word column on Progress and tweets @johnmcternan