Well, it turns out that ‘Red Ed’ is really a social conservative. As both
Pete and James say, his speech contained notable sallies into Cameroon territory
– community and family. He didn’t follow Cameron’s trail to the metre, but fell into many of the same ditches. Two things struck me:
1). Ever the opportunist, Miliband sees that there is the kernel of a good idea at the root of the ‘Big Society’ and tried to exploit Cameron’s inability to present it. Miliband’s gave us the ‘Good Society’, a clear though sanctimonious slogan for community renewal. However, he, like Cameron, can’t define what he means by community. He talked about post offices, high streets and, of course, the local pub. That’s all pukka and frightfully nice, but he was describing a bygone version of Britain – I was reminded of Philip Blond’s Beatrix Potter Britain – and both are irrelevant.
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