Red Ed’s speech fails to set conference on fire

RED ED – the nickname which the new British Labour Party leader abominates – was anything but red in tooth and claw when he addressed the party conference in Manchester yesterday.

Ed Miliband said the “new generation” which now leads the party wanted change across the political horizon, but there was no fire and brimstone, no punching the air with clenched fists, no rabble-rousing rhetoric in his demands.

It was a speech – his first to the conference as Labour leader – which earned a resounding reception, but which fell short, figuratively, of setting the conference alight. Indeed, he could even be accused occasionally of sweet reason – a quality not always detectable among those who thump their tubs at party conferences.