He is trying hard to carry Labour members with his agenda before reaching out to the public. At Progress, he walked into the lion’s den (they mostly supported David Miliband) and walk out with their support.

 

So what did he say and how will it play out?

There were three themes that Ed M said he would push. These will shape the narrative for as long as he is Labour leader

 

1) A new national mission
This was the central theme for yesterday. Ed is aware that the party cannot just talk about the cuts until 2015. Opposing the cuts will tell voters what the party doesn’t want, but not what they would get if they voted Labour at the next election.

 

As was said repeatedly yesterday, Cameron failed to get his majority because while people were tired of Gordon Brown, they weren’t sure what Cameron’s agenda was other than the badly defined ‘big society’.

 

The ‘national mission’ agenda is to say that the Tory agenda on cutting investment into education, sciences, local industry, is leading us into national decline. Labour has a plan to reverse this, do the Tories? Labour will also say that Tories are just interested in helping banks and re-inflating the finance sector to grow the economy, which won’t reverse the national decline.

 

Shadow ministers such as John Denham (giving a speech at Ippr North on 26th on this) will talk about how the national decline can be only be reversed with a proper industrial policy, and a focus on regenerating other parts of the country than just the south.

 

2) Growing inequality
Several times yesterday Ed Miliband and other shadow ministers (including Angela Eagle) said Labour did not do enough to reduce inequality during their time. This should be welcomed.

 

This part is captured by the ‘squeezed middle’ talk, though Ed M yesterday also focused on people on lower incomes yesterday.

 

Over the next few years people are going to see their real incomes shrink and feel that while a small segment of society (the super-rich) are doing well, the rest aren’t. The growing inequality talk will seek to tap into that deep feeling of unease over where our society is going.

 

This will be coupled with criticising Tory cuts.

 

3) Ties that bind us together
This was the most vague part of the speech. Labour needs to find a language that taps into people’s feeling that a sense of solidarity, patriotism and cohesion is lacking.

 

He said Blue Labour was about how the Labour party related to people not a nostalgic view of the past:

 

It starts from what we see in our country. A sense of people being buffeted by storm winds blowing through their lives. A fear of being overpowered by commercial and bureaucratic forces beyond our control. And a yearning for the institutions and relationships we cherish most to be respected and protected.

 

You see it in the concerns people have about what is happening to their local high street, post office and pub. The sense of loss in Birmingham from the takeover of Cadbury’s. The football supporters fed up with billionaires who see their clubs simply as financial assets.

 

Ed M does not buy all of the ‘Blue Labour’ agenda, so the chances of him embracing Faith, Family and Flag whole-heartedly are remote (especially since many people around Ed don’t buy it either).

 

Expect this to be partly about Movement 4 Change, and partly about Labour championing British institutions that personify the ‘national mission’.

 

Other observations
 

- Progressive majority: Ed Miliband does not accept the dismissal of this by some in Labour. He said yesterday:

 

There is a prevailing idea that this is a Conservative country. That there is little we can do apart from accommodate to that fact. I think the people who believe that are wrong. Not just because the majority of people at the last election voted for parties other than the Conservative party. But because I know that voters want something more than this government can provide.

 

Agreed (more on what PM means). Labour should be unashamedly progressive and forward-looking than trying to placate conservative sentiments all the time.

 

- Libdems: They were completely ignored yesterday. All the fire was on the Conservatives.

 

- Cuts: Ed M explicitly rejected the view, in response to a question by one Progress member, that Labour should stop talking about the cuts. The party will oppose some (tho not all) cuts, but will do so in a broader context about what society we want Britain to be.

 

- Feminism: One member said she wanted Ed M to explain why Labour should be a feminist party. Ed didn’t seem to know how to respond to this immediately, so just mentioned he wanted equality and had set a target for a 50% shadow cabinet of women. This bit needs firming up.

 

All things to all people?: One prominent Progress member told me after the speech was all things to all people, and so wouldn’t face much internal criticism. This is perhaps true: the real battle will come once Ed starts putting the meat on the bones. But building the skeleton is important too and there is much to debate on that front.

 

- Lord Ashcroft: Ed M’s team have also been pouring over Lord Ashcroft’s polling like hawks. He is even name-checked in the speech!

 

Overall, as you may expect, I’m pleased with the direction of travel and the main themes Ed M is pushing. I do have quibbles but they don’t relate to this speech. More on that soon.