Miliband’s alternative: Labour’s leader has a coherent, social democratic vision

The timing was not kind to Ed Miliband, as he delivered what he hopes will be his last set conference speech as Leader of the Opposition. Events in Syria inevitably meant that the Labour leader’s words had to compete with the conviction of Dave Lee Travis for second place in the news. Another disadvantage he faced is that this speech was the fourth of its kind.

Those who listened to the previous ones already knew about a phenomenal memory that allowed him to speak for 67 minutes without notes – though, unfortunately for Mr Miliband, he forgot a section on the economy, as George Osborne noted in an opportunistic and clever tweet. Party delegates had also heard the conversational style and the unfunny, self-deprecating jokes before. Hence the rather bored, mocking reaction from much of the professional commentariat, which was not matched by the reactions of the audience in the hall. The latter were carried by Mr Miliband’s obvious decency and passion.

His speech contained a number of promises – some detailed, some very general – which may have sounded like a random shopping list, but actually fitted into a coherent narrative. In the first half of the speech, he set out his general theme – that under the Conservatives, you are on your own, unless you are very rich. Under Labour, he promised, we will all be together. In the second half he promised vast investment in the NHS, partly at the expense of the tobacco companies; the rise in the minimum wage; more apprenticeships; more home insulation; better protection for the self-employed; the break-up of the banks; devolution of power from Whitehall to the localities; and the mansion tax.

The Independent agrees with some of those policies, and admires the serious attempt to fix the funding crisis in the health service. But not mentioning the deficit was a bad error which may fortify Labour’s difficulties on the economy. For all that, Mr Miliband articulated a social democratic vision of Britain which is, in several key respects, different to that of the Coalition. Next May, those who proclaim there is no alternative will be wrong.