Miliband’s “national mission” lacks a mission plan

I didn’t expect to be overwhelmed by Ed Miliband’s speech to the Progress Annual Conference today, but neither did I expect to be quite so underwhelmed. This was meant to be his Great Exposition of how, as he put it his introductory remarks, Labour “will win the next election”. But what we got was a straighforward list of some of the major themes of his leadership so far: the “squeezed middle,” the prospects for young people, community breakdown, and so on and so forth. These are all worthwhile areas for debate, but Miliband has dwelt on them before now, and more persuasively — such as in his speech to the Resolution Foundation in February. Repeating them may help make the point, but it doesn’t mean that Labour have any solutions. The absence of policy specifics was especially noticeable today.

In fact, only the soundbites were particularly new. Miliband wrapped everything up in the banner of a “national mission”.