VERY early start today. Went to conference centre to see the old man make his debut as Daybreak’s roving reporter at conference.
In his two-way with Adrian and Christine he answered about what next for David Miliband.
Then after a quick rest it was back in the conference hall to see DM’s speech. Who’d a thought a foreign affairs Q&A would start with a remarkable standing ovation.
But I think the media really missed the big message here. Just blogged about it over at Labour Uncut
Up early for the first day filming with Daybreak.
But just been watching our new leader on Marr.
Very telling that Ed was continuing to reach out to a lot of people, just as he did as he toured the receptions last night.
But for many, last night belonged to David.
He showed an enormous amount of courage and class to walk round the reception in Ed’s wake.
Expect David’s speech will bring the house down. He could read the Manchester Yellow Pages and people will be in tears.
Having seen three deputy leadership campaigns up close, I know all too well how hard it is to keep smiling when you’ve lost.
And I’ll be smiling again today after the Treasurer vote.
Delegates seemed punch drunk after a four and a half month campaign, which took time to grab interest but then exploded in the last four weeks.
And as David Aaronovitch also said on Marr, Ed showed he was more ruthless.
Today, he’ll continue his task to heal the party. His Sunday Telegraph piece is telling about helping the squeezed middle. He also said he wants to lead a responsible opposition.
But now he’s got to be seen to stand up to the unions and be radical, but on the centreground of politics. They’re not mutually exclusive.
The first five minutes of Marr were taken up with his union support. So Ed’s going to have make a symbolic gesture to stop being defined as the rabid leftie he patently isn’t.
And the unions know that’s going to happen – and will be happy to take a bit of a public kicking or slight.
I don’t buy that Unite will march into Ed’s suite with a shopping list. They’re just happy Miliband Major didn’t grab the crown. Tony Woodley will be happy with that. One for his legacy.
Now they’ve got his way, Woodley and Kinnock should now gracefully step back from the rolling news two ways and let him be the leader of the NEW generation.
So on to the tortuous hell that is the leader’s speech.
16 years ago Ed would be toiling over Gordon’s.
Now he’s on his own.
Expect his aides to be trolling the bars with that age old conference mantra.
“Got any jokes?”
Just a few minutes from Manchester and the most exciting conference in 16 years.
It’ll be my 25th conference (he started me young!) but I’ll always have a soft spot for MCR.
Yes, Blackpool has a faded charm and is on the way back up with the redevelopment of the beach front – they should have got that casino.
But Manchester Conference Centre is a brilliant venue. It’s also where I saw Tony Wilson’s Tenth Summer of Punk in 1986.
In one day at the GMEX, as it was then, I saw A Certain Ratio, The Fall, ex Velvet Undergrounder John Cale, Pete Shelly and Howard Devoto from the Buzzcocks.
But it’s the headliners which have resonance with today’s announcement in the same venue.
The first was New Order – well, whoever we choose today will represent that. A clean break with the old and the chance for a political rebirth.
The second was The Smiths, who came onto The Queen is Dead (insert your own joke here. They were a band that did well but ultimately split up amidst immense acrimony.
I hope today we’ll take our lead from the former not the latter!
Anyway, whichever Miliband gets it, I hope he has a chance to read my debut blog for Sion Simon’s excellent LabourUncut.
Labour’s a big job to do in getting its communications in order and hopefully I’ve given them a few ideas.
I managed to pop back to Ireland to surprise Roz and our wonderful daughter Ava Grace.
But the fallout from the Irish PM’s infamous Morning Ireland radio interview is still rumbling on, thanks to social media.
For those who don’t know, Cowen went on the radio only hours after a late night drinking session at a party meeting.
He was welcomed, as was Brown, as a refreshing antidote to the ‘spin’ driven governance that came before. In Cowen’s case it was Bertie Ahern.
But this radio appearance, along with a couple of photos of him looking a bit worse for wear, have many wishing for the presentational prowess of his predecessor.
A tweet from an opposition politician, Fina Gael’s Simon Coveney seemed to capture the public mood, stating Cowen seemed to be ‘halfway between drunk and hungover.’
That tweet also served to push the story into the mainstream media as the state broadcaster RTE had initially ignored the below-par interview.
Cowen initially responded that the tweet was a ‘new low in Irish politics.‘
But that response only made matters worse as the public were starting to agree with Coveney’s analysis.
Cowen eventually had to apologise but refused to admit he’d had one too many, the line being to blame it on his ‘hoarseness.’
As a media trainer, I’d advise against morning interviews unless you’ve done solid prep work the night before, had a good eight hours sleep and drink plenty of water.
I’m not sure he’s hungover – from experience I know the Irish can take industrial amounts of alcohol and still function properly – but he does sound very tired and congested. Maybe a touch of ‘conference flu?’
He’ll survive for now but Fianna Fail already face a difficult election next year.
That task may now be made more difficult by a PM who in the minds of the voters kept drinking until AM.
But the really interesting issue is how social media is starting to push stories normally ignored by the establishment mainstream media.
I wouldn’t accuse RTE of being subserviant to Cowen and his Government. But as we’ve seen recently with Tom Watson’s success on the Met Police’s investigation of phone tapping and Paul ‘Guido” Staines’ pursuit of William Hague, mainstream media is now having to treat social media and the blogosphere just as importantly as the Press Association wires.
Anyway, what do you think? Is Cowen hungover or just hoarse?
So after 40 hustings over 17 weeks, it’s nearly over.
I originally called back in May for as long as leadership contest as possible, especially after the last coronation and the election defeat
I’d probably say on balance it was still a good thing to have a four month debate to examine where we went wrong and where Labour goes next. But we’ve all been tested at times. Having watched most of the televised hustings, the same arguments and lines have been repeated ad infiniutm.
It’a a bit like sitting through your favourite film EVERY week and mouthing each line of dialogue.
However the big benefit of this contest is that the main candidates have actually learned how to campaign.
They’ve built teams from scratch, they’ve motivated volunteers and worked across the party and the country to win support from Facebook to face-to-face.
So we now have five senior politicians with very formidable cutting-edge campaign experience.
The challenge for them will be to unite behind a leader and turn their fire back on to the coalition.
It won’t be easy.
They’ve given up a third of a year to follow their dream, sacrificed their time with their families to traipse around the UK to attend house-meetings, CLPs and phone banks.
You can’t go through that, lose and then smile sweetly whilst platituding that the best man/woman run.
For most it’ll be very sore, raw and intially a bit hard to accept. It’ll be a campaign comedown.
But I predict this – losing won’t be that bad.
In fact, the runner-up will go on to become the darling of the party for years to come. And that’s a very powerful position to be in as the leader won’t be able to do a thing without explicitly bringing the loser and his supporters with him.
Because if there’s one thing the Labour party loves it’s the nearly guy. The fella who slogged his guts out, gave his all, only to fall short at the end.
Perhaps that’s why TB was viewed with suspicion. He was way too much of a winner for our liking!
So, yes, the new leader will have their day on September 25th. But the person who comes second will earn a title with much more affection and respect from the party.
That old chestnut of the best leader Labour NEVER had.
And the new leader had better hug him close - like a brother.
Ava Grace Prescott getting to grips with her first Massey Ferguson.
Next week…combine harvester!
This is a test blog post from my mobile. If this works, life just got VERY interesting!
