91Èȱ¬

Ed Miliband gets a standing ovation at the end of his first leader's speech, but will he be able to win back voters?

was perhaps overlong and on the odd occasion hesitant.

But it also had plenty of meat, and some interesting insights into how the "new generation" running the Labour party will choose to take on the Coalition.

And crucially of course how he'll try to win back those who turned away - including the tens of thousands of northern voters who have deserted Labour since 1997.

There was a section at the start where I thought we were hearing Gordon Brown again as his successor reeled off a selection of New Labour acheievements.

That though was only to ease the way later on for a trashing of large chunks of the Blair-Brown era.

The Iraq war, post office closures, tuition fees, the failure to appreciate the the impact of mass immigration, and 90-day detentions were all described as mistakes.

Of course his critics will point out that he kept his opposition to many of those things while he was in government.

But the new leader was also keen to make it clear that this was no lurch to the left.

He wouldn't oppose every cut, he would stick with Alistair Darling's plan to halve the deficit in four years, and he would even welcome welfare reform.

But he would look to offer something different to David Cameron and the Coalition.

And for me that was the most interesting section of the speech, signs of how he plans to take on the Conservatives in particular.

He wanted to reclaim optimism for Labour, saying David Cameron had been the optimist once.

There was also a long section about the need for our society to value quality of life and not just economic efficiency - something which seemed to echo .

Expect to hear more about how David Cameron and the Conservatives are creating a gloomy world where only cuts matter.

There are those - - who think the lack of optimism cost David Cameron outright victory in the General Election.

Crucially, there was no attack on the Lib Dems or Nick Clegg though.

Ed Miliband clearly would like to leave the door open for disillusioned Lib Dems to join Labour both now, but also in a future coalition.

And then there was the role of one care worker from Durham, used by Ed Miliband as an example of why he wants a "living wage" of more than £7 an hour.

He told the Conference he'd met the care worker during the campaign.

He said: "She is doing one of the most important jobs in our society, and if it was my Mum or Dad, I would want anyone who cared for them to be paid a decent wage.

"But she was barely paid the minimum wage - and barely a few pence extra for higher skills.

"She told me that she thought a fair wage would be £7 an hour because after all she would get that for stacking shelves at the local supermarket."

He went on to descry a world where a banker earns in a day what a care worker earns in a year. Mind you, he didn't actually say how he'd prevent that!

David Miliband greets young Labour members before his brother's speech, but is he about to say goodbye to front-line politics?

The speech also started with references to family and brother David.

He rubbished the idea that he was more left wing than his older brother by saying that when he'd stolen David's ball, his brother had responded by "nationalising his train set".

Now of course we await the next chapter in the Miliband soap opera, and potentially the writing out of a central character.

, David Miliband is about to turn down the chance of being in the Shadow Cabinet.

He will remain purely as the Labour MP for South Shields.

That may yet prove to be wrong, but it does seem increasingly likely that he at least won't be one of the "new generation".

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?