The Guardian view on Ed Miliband’s task in Manchester
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Version 0 of 1. Margaret Thatcher, rarely a particularly popular leader, was nonetheless a highly effective prime minister in remaking Britain’s political economy. Officials of the 1980s recall that it was not so much her famous taste for detail that allowed her to force so much of her agenda through; rather, it was that pretty much every civil servant throughout the system knew exactly what the Thatcher instinct would be on any given question. Consequently, Thatcherite thinking was always considered, and very often reflected, in submissions before No 10 had done anything to intervene. Though derided by many, Ed Miliband insists that he harbours ambitions to refashion British capitalism just as determinedly as Mrs Thatcher did. If her obsession was rewarding enterprise at the top, Mr Miliband’s avowed preoccupation is devising a new way of doing business that can share prosperity around. From capping energy bills to speaking up for intervention against Pfizer’s threatened takeover of AstraZeneca, we have seen odd flashes of the kind of thing he may have in mind. Sunday’s suggestion of an £8-an-hour minimum wage by 2020 is another plausible, practical step. What the Labour leader has so far failed to do, however, is get across his underlying instincts to anybody who does not regularly study his speeches, which is very close to saying anybody at all. In relation to strikes, where most Labour leaders perch on the fence, he has often sounded particularly pained. His troubling personal poll numbers suggest that the public has little idea what he is about, and at times even his shadow cabinet seems hazy – just think of Labour’s inability to come up with a clear line on Pfizer/AstraZeneca until Mr Miliband personally intervened. Next month, Labour frontbenchers begin enjoying pre-election access to civil servants, to allow officials to plan for potential regime change. Whitehall is going to have an awful lot of questions to ask. The Miliband challenge in Manchester this week is not to produce eye-catching initiatives but to speak in plain language about the intended direction of travel. In many ways Mr Miliband has proved a more capable leader than he is given credit for. Labour, notoriously prone to factionalism after defeat, has remained united since 2010. Its lead in the polls is a little smaller than a year ago and much diminished since 2012, but with the clock ticking down towards next May a narrow advantage remains. With Scottish MPs spared an early ejection, and with an electoral system that is kind to his party, even if there is no wave of enthusiasm for Mr Miliband, there is undeniably a real chance that he will soon be in No 10. Office, however, is not the same thing as power. To achieve that he will need to begin communicating whatever impulses, passions and hunches lurk in the Miliband breast. |