That Ed Milliband Speech in full (3)

[check against delivery]

Hello and welcome to Manchester.

I'm not very sure what to talk about today. I've been leader for two years, and I'm feeling so old my memory is going.

My son tells me I should be talking about dinosaurs, and that seems as good an idea as any.

Anyway instead of making a speech today I'm going to do what my image advisors keep telling me to do and tell you my story.

I was born in a hospital and went to a school. Just like you normal people.

I wouldn't be standing here today without an education from one of the most exclusive comprehensive schools in the country.

My parents instilled in me a sense of duty to get on with my brother. [shrugs]

I believe we shall overcome, nuns in a convent, over the alps to Switzerland. This is my faith.

Of course my parents didn't tell me what career to go into. And they are both so scarily left-wing, they must be ashamed of me. Or maybe I show them a different face to what I show you.

That is my faith. Those are my two faithes.

When I think of normal person I met I think how full of positive empathic energy she was. And then she told me her story. It was a better story than this one.

When I think of small business person I met I feel so touchy-feely, I'm in danger of touching myself here on stage.

Why is it that the gas and electricity bill just goes up and up? [Should I mention my time as Energy Secretary?  Ed. No, you fool]

Hooray for the olympics and paralympics. We succeeded because of the 70,000 games makers all of whom are here with us today. [We'll need a bigger hall. Ed]

Hooray for the troops. Hooray for the police. Hooray for Seb Coe and Tessa Jowell.

And Hooray for us. [What about all the elite athletes - do we mention them? Ed]

That sense of a country united. I can't remember a time like it since the country rejected Michael Foot.

Bejamin Disraeli - Clement Atlee - One Nation [Tory? Ed] - that is my vision, that is the Britain we must become.

But Labour's failures on youth unemployment, the increasing gap between rich and poor, and a welfare system that fails to make work pay, has stood in the way of these things. [Er, I'm a bit worried people will notice I am praising coalition policy. Ed]

So who can do this? What about the Tories. [murmur of agreement from the crowd] Wrong answer. What about the Tories [boos from the crowd]

Borrowing borrowing borrowing borrowing. We are against the government doing this. We want them to do more of it and/or less of it. But the opposite is true.

The problem is the British people are paying the price of the last governments failure. [This government surely? Ed. Sorry.]

What do they choose as their priority at this time? A tax cut for milliionaires like me, balanced by caps on reliefs that will raise five times as much from millionaires like me. [better not mention the last bit]

How can we justify the unfairness in 2012 of ignoring the whole balance of the tax package when criticising it? We have to do it or we will have nothing to say in this speech. I mean story.

Remember the people's budget of 1909 that was blocked by the House of Lords? We have sunk Lords reform so that it would be blocked again.

My advisors tell me to attack on the issue of competence because we are rightly seen as weak there.

Ooohh silly Tory toffs look tee hee. You wont find that kind of privilege among Islington and Hampstead millionaires like myself.

So we disagree and agree with the government on welfare reform.

And we agree with many of the government cuts, and we agree that those with the broadest shoulders will bear the greatest burden. I will never support a top rate as low as 45p, that's just wrong. That's why our party had it at 40p. One nation can be two-faced nation.

There is no future for this party as a party of one sectional interest, led by a man bought and paid for by the unions.

In One Nation, no interest from Murdoch to the banks will be too powerful to be held to account. [So why didn't we set up Leveson and Vickers? Ed]

Think about small business person who was ripped of by his bank thanks to our failure to regulate. We will do something about this if it hasn't been done already.

To be a One Nation economy, you see, you have to support coalition policies in all these areas. Let's pretend there aren't a million extra apprenticeships under the coalition and talk as if we've just thought of the idea.

So we'll now focus on the forgotten 50% who don't go to university - by making them pay higher taxes to support the tuition of those who do go.

We will make apprenticeships a condition of public contracts. And I'll talk for a bit about coalition policy on apprenticeships as if it were ours. But focusing on the public sector.

Michael Gove. Tee hee. He wanted to bring back a two tier system, but the Liberal Democrats wouldn't have it.

We can bring about this one nation economy by removing clarity from accounting standards, and by putting up barriers to trade. Because that's never gone wrong, no sir.

I want us to engage with Europe and the rest of the world. Too often in the past we have been tolerant of immigration where it might benefit our economy and society. So this is something I will do differently. The last Labour government did too little to win the "bigot" vote.

Scotland could leave the United Kingdom, but we would be much worse off as a result. Not just in pounds and pence but also in the electoral prospects of the Labour Party.

Hooray for the NHS. I'm so pleased it still exists despite everything we said about the reforms.

What a scoundrel Cameron is. The Labour Party would never do a top-down reorganisation of the NHS.

So I'm going to pretend for a bit that the NHS has been abolished, because that will get you fired up.

The worst thing for me about these reforms is how they were designed around Blairite values. It proves the old adage: You just can't trust New Labour on the NHS.

So let me be unclear. The next Labour government will repeal something.

So that's my speech, I mean story.

I was talking to my mum. Not about dinosaurs this time.

Who in this generation will fight them on the beaches, and on the landing grounds? It's not some impossible dream. One nation under labour can fight these [other] dinosaurs. Thankyou very much.

That Ed Milliband speech in full (2)

In a big scoop for the Extra Bold Blog, I have again obtained an early draft of Ed Milliband's speech.

For copyright reasons, I won't release this until after the actual speech has been delivered.

[check against delivery]

Friends, comrades, it is great to still be here. A generation ago a Labour leader condemned Labour in Liverpool. Today, Liverpool has been put right, by someone.

Ask me the three most important things I've done this year, and I'll tell you. They're all about my family. Which is nice.

But let me talk about my nose for a while. You'd be surprised how many unfunny jokes it can inspire.

Conference, let's get down to business. This is a dangerous time. This is not the time for the same old answers to the challenge of growth. People need to know where I stand. We lost trust on the economy, and I am determined to restore that trust.

We will only spend what we can afford, we will live within our means, but not yet. The next Labour government won't be able to reverse any of the cuts we purport to oppose today.

We will set new fiscal rules [like the "Golden Rule"? - Ed]. But I have a disagreement with this government. They believe the government should live within its means, but they are wrong. [Didn't you just say the opposite? - Ed]

Of course the world economy is suffering, but our government is making it worse by following our legacy of debt and austerity, albeit slightly more effectively.

I say to David Cameron, put politics aside and look at the facts. I am going to tell it straight. That's a lesson I have learned over this year. [Insert actual straight talking here later.]

Milly Dowler, Milly Dowler, Milly Dowler. What kind of country have we become where political parties such as this one would suck up to Rupert Murdoch? That's why, once opinion had turned against him, I was willing to change. I'm not Tony Blair (he wouldn't have done this) - a great man, I am my own man, that's what it means to lead. Nobody ever changed things by being nice.

My message to the public is simple... Technical Fault.

... the Labour Party lost trust on the economy. [Haven't we already had this bit.]

... people looting shops, burning cars. But thousands came to help with the clean up. That is what we mean by the big society, I mean Blue Labour, I mean Purple Bookery, I mean refounding next new Labour.

Citizens and public servants alike are truly British, I think. We are great people in a great country, ready for the Olympics. So with such great people, how did we end up here. It is because of the way we have run the country for decades.

There are hard lessons here for our party. Some of what happened in the 80s were right, but too much of it was based on the wrong values. Wrong values that we did not do enough to change.

You believe you deserve more, but bankers are getting more instead.

You believe in the long term, but the fast buck, short termism, borrowing and debt bubbles have been the rule.

You believe in responsibility, but big vested interests like the unions have for too long been able to get away with anything.

Who do we blame for all of this, apart from the last Labour government? Why the fat cats in industry of course. Oh except for the good fat cats, we like them, they create jobs and value. But often the bad fat cats earn more than the good ones. I'm sorry our wages policy didn't crack that one.

Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity. Children, children, children. Sad puppy expression.

Values, values, values. You know what your values are. Celebrity culture, gangs, life on benefits, chavs.

People who have paid into the system all their lives find the safety net full of holes. We need a new bargain. Let's confront head on the new challenge of values, wealth creation, you know what your values are, values, values, China, India and Brazil, the kind of economy we have now, we can't pay our way in the world, confront head on.

Not credit default swaps but creative industries etc.

Now not all business is the same. Who knew? All parties must be pro-business today, but we can distinguish between wealth creators and asset strippers like the Phoenix Consortium; I learned this from a hollywood movie from the 80s.

We must learn the lesson that growth is built on sand if it is built on debt, I mean predators, not producers. This is the pro-business choice because really there is not much asset stripping going on these days, but it makes a good soundbite.

This is why our new industrial policy will stick government fingers deep into the hearts of businesses seeking contracts.

But lets get more competition in energy supply, despite all that.

The wealth of our nation is built by the hands not only of the elite few, but also the proletarian masses.

Just think of our young people going into higher education facing a graduate tax in all but name style repayment. We would cut the amount that a few top earning graduates would have to pay by cutting the headline notional fee to £6000.

Schools, schools, schools, children, children, children.

Have you noticed how uncomfortable David Cameron is when talking about responsibility at the top of our society. When you have had to pay, it is always our fault, our toxic legacy of debt and austerity. Yet at the same time the government is taxing top earners more than Labour did. [Sure you want to say this? - Ed] How dare we say they're all in it together!

If you think putting things right means reforming welfare then you're wrong, but at the same time you're right, work must pay. I'm prepared to make the tough decisions to make the welfare reforms to make work pay a reality, seeing as it will already have been done by 2015. But that won't stop us scoring points along the way.

Decency, fairness, helping those who do the right thing. These are values we are learning from the coalition. And with these values we will make welfare work again.

Millions of public servants deliver a fantastic public service every day and every week. But public services can become unaccountable, and need reform. Patients, victims, standing in the queue, computer says no. We need to sign up to the government's reform agenda, in the hope people think we thought of it. We need to stand up to the vested interests, except the unions, who own me.

Why does Britain care so much for the NHS? Because it's really good. And free, mostly, at the point of use. And when I look at everything the government is doing, I try really hard to find a way in which that will change. That reform agenda I spoke of a moment ago; if the government does it, we will scaremonger as if our lives depended on it.

I'm not finished. Yet. If you want someone who will rip up the old rules, new rules, old rules, new hat, old hat. You know Britain needs to change, kids, mum and dad, a fight for a new bargain, your values, pay our way in the world, values, break open closed circles, a new bargain, a long pause, a new bargain, kids, mum and dad.

I promise to promise the promise of each so we promise the promise of Britain. Thankyou.

That Ed Milliband speech in full

In a big scoop for the Extra Bold Blog, I have obtained an early draft of Ed Milliband's speech.

For copyright reasons, I won't release this until after the actual speech has been delivered.

[check against delivery]

Friends, comrades, it is 72 hours since I became leader of this party. I want to say how incredibly honoured I am that you have chosen me over my brother to lead our party. David that'll teach you to nationalise my train set.

And let me pay tribute to two colleagues who are standing down. Alasdair Darling: you kept cool while Mandelson and Brown were overriding you. And Jack Straw you were always good as the butt of my unfunny jokes. Like this one.

The gift my parents gave to me and David is what I want for every child in this country: an indoctrination into the revolutionary road to socialism.

We have a responsibility to leave this world in a better state than we found it, except when it comes to public debt.

Freedom and opportunity are precious gifts. This is something I learned not to be true from my dad's books.

But lets face facts we had a bad result. Every day out of power is one where we can blame the coalition for the consequences of our deficit. So lets resolve to be back in power when the deficit has been removed, er, hopefully just 5 years.

Remember the spirit of 1997. But by the end of our time in office we had lost our way. Tony and Gordon took on conventional wisdom and lost. Let's do that again.

The old way of thinking said that public services would always be second class. And they still are. I'm proud of, er, something. But we saved the National Health Service, apparently.

The old thinking was that the world was too big and this country too small to make a difference. But look at our wars!

So Tony and Gordon took on established institutions until they became them.

But we also have to understand where we went wrong. How did we lose 5 million votes? A party taking on old thinking became trapped by its own dogmas. We became friends of the city, insufficiently racist on immigration, corrupted in the expenses scandal, and piling the debt on students.

But this week we embark on the journey back to thinking. We don't know all the answers yet. Dis generation wants to rule the nation with version. This generation wants to change our foreign policy so that we don't always start wars when we have the chance.

As we emerge from the global economic crisis we need to reduce the deficit. We are in no position to oppose what the coalition does because we would have had to do much the same. The fiscal credibility we earned in 1997 was hard won, and Ed Balls has being doing his best to throw away the last shreds of it.

But I'm now going to pretend I didn't say any of that, and have a go at all the cuts we would have had to have done anyway.

This government has no 5 year plan for growth, and no 5 year economic plan is no way to a planned economy of any kind.

I have a much bigger vision - to emerge from the financial crisis learning to listen to Vince Cable next time.

I want our businesses to benefit from the globalised economy. But not if it means hiring foreigners. Except people like my dad. We didn't listen on the doorstep to complaints about immigration. [camera cuts to some black people in the audience]

We want to win an argument about the danger the coalition government poses to our party. So let's have no truck with overblown rhetoric about waves of strike action. Labour would have had to do the same. In case that sounds evil, I'll talk a bit about caring for children.

This is one of the hardest issues for our party - but those who can work should do so. Reforming our benefits system must not be about stereotyping everyone out of work, like it was under Labour, but a genuine plan to make sure those in need are protected, and those who can work do so, like under the coalition.

We are a generation that yearns for things business cannot provide - green spaces and family. We were right to introduce markets, but naive about them. We shouldn't have closed all the post offices. We shouldn't have put all those pubs out of business with the smoking ban.

We stand for these things not because we are social conservatives, but because we are just conservatives.

Family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family.

So as we rebuild our economy, family, family, family, family, family, family, family, family.

But government can itself become a vested interest. I know the value of a good school, and I know that many parents are frustrated that they don't have them. But we wouldn't let them set up their own schools.

I believe individual freedom and liberty matter and should never be given away lightly. [Do I need to duck for cover at this point? Ed] Locking up innocent people undermined the good things we did like the database state.

We, me and my brother are the new generation. And we need new thinking in foreign policy.

Troops, troops, troops, troops, troops, troops, troops, troops, troops, troops, troops.

I've got to be honest with you about Iraq. Iraq divided our country. I'll say it divided our party, although we didn't show it at the time. But we were wrong.

Politics is basically broken. We have a huge responsibility to reform it. I support changing the voting system and will vote yes on AV. And we need to elect the house of lords. And we need more decisions to be made locally. I am so happy we have a government that understands all this unlike the last lot.

Hooray for Red Ken being our candidate for London Mayor. We can be the Red brothers. Sorry David.

Wisdom is not the preserve of any one party. Keynes, Lloyd-George and Beveridge are among my heroes. When Ken Clarke wants to review short sentences, I won't call him soft on crime, sorry Jack. Let's have a more grown up kind of politics. [Do make sure this early draft of the speech isn't leaked.]

We are the optimists, the new generation, the optimists and the new generation. Hooray for us.