David Miliband’s speech was neither a triumph nor a disaster. It was, as a fellow scribbler put it to me afterwards, a seven out of ten speech. I doubt that many people who weren’t for Miliband before it thought he was the man Labour needs after it. But equally Miliband’s supporters will have been relieved that he didn’t bomb liked he did last year.
Miliband confidently walked the leadership speculation tightrope. Early in the speech, he turned to Brown and praised him for his role in increasing international development funding. Praise for the leader but on an issue that everyone knows won’t decide the election. Then, at the end Miliband set out his personal credo—which was fairly bog-standard left-wing verbiage—under the cover of saying that Labour knows what it stands for:
“That everyone should have a fair chance and those who succeed should help others.
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