Leader: Ed Miliband, man of the people

WHEN you are the new kid on the political block and struggling to make an impact, never mind to impress, a blast of political populism is a tried and trusty trick.

Ed Miliband, his Labour Party leadership mantle hanging uneasily on him, duly hit the crowd-pleasing buttons yesterday.

His targets for anger – the “predatory asset-strippers” and “fast-buck merchants” among the “vested interests” of the big banks and energy companies – had the dual effect of satisfying a quietly doubting Labour audience in the hall and calling outside it to voters feeling the pain of recession.

The icons selected for praise – the “grafters” responsibly working hard, but not sharing in the rewards, particularly in manufacturing industry – had much the same effect.

This was a speech in which he needed to define himself, rather than set out new policies. He did so by criticising some of the failings of his New Labour predecessors, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, more in generalities of failing to deal with the predators and redefine public values than in particularities. But he did not dismiss New Labour’s modernising drive, by the slightly odd way of praising some of Margaret Thatcher’s achievements, such as ending the trade union closed shop.

Mr Miliband has thus built more solid foundations for his leadership and created interest in the direction he will take Labour. Yet he still seems a rather implausibly slight figure for the task he has set – ripping up the old rules of the old order which he accused David Cameron of still following. There is a way to go yet.