Believe it or not, Labour’s party conference has finally ground to a halt. Here are the key lessons from the past six days in Manchester:
1. Ed Miliband is no longer a joke leader of the opposition. The Labour leader’s speech showed that he can now talk a good game, and even though much of that performance was no more than a good game, Miliband gave his party and voters a glimpse of the more authoritative figure that he has grown into over the past two years. It’s worth watching his speech to the 2010 autumn conference where he appeared completely floored by bursts of applause to see quite how far he has come.
2. Miliband is keen to paint himself not just as the anti-politics politician by embracing his inner geek – I understand that his advisers have decided that they should take a cue from Boris Johnson’s success at appearing comfortable in his own eccentric skin – but also as the man qualified to tell the nation that ‘we’re all in this together’.
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