02/10/2012 Today at Conference

This programme contains strobe lighting.

Good evening and welcome back to Manchester for more highlights from

the Labour Party Conference. This is my faith, this is who I am.

It was a highly personal speech, delivered with no notes and no

autocue in which the leader of the opposition claimed the "one nation"

mannedle for his party. In the conference's keynote speech,

Ed Miliband outlined his political vision to his party and the country

at large. It was a highly personal speech,

delivered with no notes and no autocue, in which the Leader of the

Opposition claimed the "one nation" mantle for his party.

And, he got a warm reception,not just in the hall, but from many

pundits. But was it more positioning than

Years. Both of my parents came to Britain as immigrants. Jewish

refugees from the Nazis. I know I would not be standing on this stage

today without the compassion and tolerance of our great country,

Great Britain. You know, my parents saw Britain rebuilt after the

Second World War. I was born in my local, national health service

hospital. The same hospital my two sons would later be born in. As you

saw in the film, I went to my local school. I went to my local

comprehensive with people from all backgrounds. It is this upbringing

that has made me who I am. A person of faith. Not a religious faith,

but a faith none the less. A faith that I believe many religious

people would recognise. Here is my faith. I believe we have a duty to

leave the world a better place than we found it. I believe we cannot

shrug... APPLAUSE

I believe we cannot shrug our shoulders at injustice and just say,

that's the way the world is. I believe, that we can overcome any

odds if we come together as people. That's how...

APPLAUSE You see, that's how my mum survived

the war. The kindness of strangers. Nuns in a con vent who took her in

and shelledered her from the Nazis. Took in a Jewish girl at risk to

themselves. It's what my dad found when he came to these shores and

joined the Royal Navy and was part of Britain, winning the war. Now,

of course, my parents didn't tell me what career to go into. My late

father, as some of you know, wouldn't agree with many of the

things I stand for. He would have loved the idea of Red Ed. He would

have been a little bit disappointed that it wasn't true. My mum

probably doesn't agree with me either. But, like most mums, is too

kind to say so. Look, when I was younger I wasn't certain I wanted

to be a politician, but I d believe the best way for me to give back to

Britain, the best way to be true to my faith is through politics. Now,

that is not a fashionable view today. Millions of people have

given up on politics. They think we are all the same. I guess you could

say, I'm out to prove them wrong. APPLAUSE

That is who I am. APPLAUSE

I want to talk to all the people of this country who have always

thought of themselves as comfortably off, but who now find

themselves struggling to make ends meet. They ask, why is it that when

the oil price goes up, the petrol price goes up? When the oil price

comes down, the petrol price just stays the same? They ask why is

that the gas and electricity bill just goes up and up and up? They

ask why is it that privatised train companies can make hundreds of

millions of pounds in profit at the same time as train fares are going

up by 10% a year? APPLAUSE

They ask, why is it, they think the system just doesn't work for them.

You know what, they're right. It doesn't. It doesn't work for them

because of cosy cartels and powerful interests that Government

haven't cut down to size. You know, 140 years ago, 140 years ago, to

the year, another leader of the opposition gave a speech. It was in

the free trade hall that used to stand opposite this building. The

Radison now, by the way. His name was Benjamin Desraeli. He was a

Tory. Don't let that put you off, just for a minute. His speech took

over three hours to deliver. He... Don't worry, don't worry... He

drank two whole bottles of brandy while delivering it. That is

absolutely true. Now look, I just want to say, I know a speech that

long would probably kill you. The brandy would definitely kill me.

Let us remember what Desraeli was celebrated for. It was a vision of

Britain. A vision of Britain where patriotism, loyalty and dedication

to the common cause, courses through the veins of all and nobody

feels left out. It was a vifgs Britain coming together to overcome

the challenges we face. Desraeli called it ""one nation". "One

nation". We heard the phrase again as the country came together to

defeat fascism. We heard it again as the Labour government rebuilt

Friends, I didn't become Leader of the Labour Party to re-invent the

world of Desraeli or Atlee. I do believe in that spirit. That spirit

of one nation, one nation a country where everyone has a stake. One

nation, a country where prosperity is fairly shared. One nation, where

we have a shared destiny, a sense of shared endeavour and a common

life that we lead together. That is my vision of one nation. That is my

vision of Britain. That is the Britain we must become.

APPLAUSE When David Cameron says to you,

well, let's just carry on as we are and wait for something to turn up.

Don't believe him. Don't believe him. If the medicine's not working,

you change the medicine. APPLAUSE

And, friends, I'll tell you what else to change. You change the

doctor too and that's what this country needs to do.

APPLAUSE Next April, David Cameron will be

writing a cheque for �40,000 to each and every millionaire in

Britain. Not just for one year, but each and every year. That is more

than the average person earns in a whole year. At the same time, as

they are imposing a tax on pensioners next April. Friends, we,

the Labour Party, the country, knows it is wrong. It is wrong what

they are doing. It shows their priorities. Here's the worse part.

David Cameron isn't just writing the cheques, he's receiving one.

He's going to be getting the millionaire's tax cut.

APPLAUSE So that's the reality in Britain

today. It's a rebate for the top. A rip-off for everybody else. A

recovery for the top. It's a recession for everybody else. This

Prime Minister said "we're all in it together", don't let him ever

tell us again "we're all in this together ." There is one thing that

this Government might have claimed to be good at. That's competence.

Because, afterall, they think they're born to rule. So maybe they

would be good at it. Have you ever seen a more incompetent, hopeless,

out of touch, U-turning, pledge- breaking, make tup as you go along,

back at the envelope, miserable shower than this Prime Minister and

had Government? APPLAUSE

To be one nation we have to live within our means. Because borrowing

is getting worse, not better, it means there will be many cuts that

this Government made that we won't be able to reverse, even though

we'd like to. You know, that is why we said in this Parliament that we

would put jobs over pay in the public sector. In the next

Parliament, we will have tough settlements for the public services.

What does it mean for the Labour Party? To be one nation, it means

we can't go back to Old Labour. We must be the party of private sector

just as much as the party of the public sector. As much of the party

as the small business and the home lep struggling against the cuts.

Stkpwhrsh help struggling against the cuts. We must be the party of

south, just as much as the party of the north.

APPLAUSE We must be the party as much of the

squeezed middle as those in poverty. There is no future for this party a

as the party of one sectional interest of our country.

APPLAUSE But so too it is right to move on

from New Labour. New Labour, despite its great achievements, was

too silent about the responsibilities of those at the

top and too Tim mid about the accountability of those with power.

In one nation, responsibility goes all the way to the top of society.

The richest in society have the biggest responsibility to show

responsibility to the rest of our country. I've got news for the

powerful interests in our country. In one nation, no interests, from

Rupert Murdoch, to the banks, is too powerful to be held to account.

APPLAUSE I have a message for the banks. We

can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you fix it

yourselves between now and the election or the next Labour Party

Government will once and again ensure that the high street bank is

no ronge -- longer the arm of a casino operation and we will break

up by law. Next, we need an education system that works for all

young people. APPLAUSE

You see, to be a one nation economy you have to use all the talents of

all of our young people. It's not just that it is socially right,

it's essential for our economy for the future. For a long time our

party has been focused on getting 50% of young people into university.

I believe that was right. Now, it's time to put our focus on the

forgotten 50% who do not go to university.

Britain has given my family everything, the spirit and the

courage and determination of the people who rebuilt Britain after

the Second World War, and now the question is asked again, who in

this generation will rebuild Britain for the future? Who can

come up to the task of rebuilding Britain? Friends, it falls to us.

It falls to us, the Labour Party, as it has fallen to previous

generations of Labour Party pioneers to leave our country a

better place than we found it. Never to shrug our shoulders at

injustice and say, that is the way the world is. To come together, to

join together as one country. It is not some impossible dream. We have

heard it, we have felt it! That is my face. One nation, a country for

all with everyone playing their part! A Briton we rebuilt together.

Thank you very much. At CHEERING Ed Miliband speaking earlier today.

Shortly after the speech, Andrew Neil spoke to the Shadow Foreign

Secretary, Douglas Alexander. Welcome. How long has Benjamin

Disraeli been Ed Miliband's political hero? Well, I think he

answered that question today by saying his mission was to build a

one-nation Britain and he was generous enough to attribute the

phrase to Benjamin Disraeli. It was issued several decades ago from a

building across the road from here that isn't up a hotel. And even

that would not convince your viewers of Ed Miliband, the

Conservative. But the phrase is as hackneyed as long as I have been

covering politics! One nation being reborn. Mr Blair, 2004 - New Labour

now wears the one-nation mantle. Chuka Umunna. And Ed Miliband, we

need what you might call one Reformation banking, from Mr

Cameron. What is new? What is new is, first of all, the

ridiculousness of the Conservatives trying to reclaim their one nation

when their policies are dividing our country between rich, poor,

North, South, and the politics we stood for in the mid- 1990s, when

we won a huge majority, we have the task of bringing together the

country after a huge election victory. The party is not just for

England, but Scotland, Wales, the North and the South, and finding

policies that bind our country together. So I think today we heard

the authentic Ed Miliband voice. This is the mission and this is the

man. And I think there are many across the country who have been

waiting to hear this voice and vision. So the Tories left the

clothes at that hall and you have picked them up and run away with

them? Well, they left them when they decided to cut tax for the

millionaires in this country while cutting pensions. We believe those

with the broadest shoulders should bear the burden of this country.

One nation is not the vision but it is an approach we will take to

deliver that division. Can I Pickup that line you repeated from the

speech? You are saying every millionaire in the country,

everybody worth �1 million or Moore, is going to get a cheque for

�40,000? If you look at the changes announced at the last Budget in

terms of the tax cut gibbon from 50 to 45%, there will be benefits of

�40,000. -- tax cut given. So Ed Miliband will be getting a cheque

for �40,000, too? Well, it is based on income... Why are you talking

about welfare and wealth? Millionaires of we -- are measured

by wealth. You have said this again and again to know it is just not

true. Income tax is on income so if you get paid �1 million you will be

�40,000 better off, but if you are simply worth �1 million and get

paid 150,000, you will not be? Correct? The truth is, there are

many who have incomes of more than �1 million in this country who will

be benefiting by the sum of �40,000 next April. How many? I do not have

the red book in front of me. I will tell you. 6,000 people in this

country earned over �1 million a year. Let me finish that point...

Facts do matter in politics. There are 310,000 millionaires in this

country. It is only the 6,000 earning over �1 million who will be

getting the �40,000. Is that not correct? No, facts matter. It would

be Mr Miliband's �40,000, it is Mr Cameron's 40,000...

A Douglas Alexander speaking a bit earlier. With one of the biggest

Blairites asking for certain donors to be kicked out, we hear the words

of another. She Blairites stay or go? They

should stay. They found a way to bring his party back into a form of

progressive politics. They should go. Why? Because we need a fresh

start and to move in the right direction. And they did not do us

any favours. They lost us the election. I think the party is

probably around the right balance and level of unity. I am writing

about why Blairites should never be allowed back. Can you give us a

brief summary? They lost the Labour traditional values and we let down

our constituencies and had appalling social housing policies.

I never want to see them again. Put it in there. You have grasping

it in an instant! Do you think Tony Blair will overcome to one of these

things again? I imagine at some stage he will be here but perhaps

not this week. Would you like to put an estimate on when? 5, 10

years? I think the moment there is a New Labour government, Tony Blair

will be addressing fringe meetings here. Are there any Blairite

surround? You see some in suits occasionally. Any 12-year-olds in

suits wanting to vote? They seem to have something against young people

in suits! Can you see any Blairites here? Erm... I have not been

looking around, actually. I can't see any. I am a Blairite so I had

met -- better vote for myself to stay. Is it lonely being one at the

moment? No! We would never be lonely. There are so many of us.

they have secret meetings? Best not say on-camera! Ed Miliband is

absolutely right to go back to the 1945 experience. We need to go back

into our rooms and back to the rigs and get the job done. Are you

worried about saying to the electorate, let's go back to 1945?

It doesn't sound that modern. They were the people who got rid of

militants for being too left wing, they are a party within a party and

they have to go as well. I might swap these around because that

would be the real view within the party.

Is Tony Blair's book selling well in the bookshop? No. How many has

it sold? So far, none. Well, Tony, you might be here only in book form

but your acolytes are not. Possibly not!

Of the mob the party Conference this year has been the Olympics. --

one themes. They have been wanting to draw on the good success of the

summer. In 1996 in Atlanta, we won just one

gold medal. In London this summer, we won 29 gold medals.

And it wasn't by accident. It was the sustained and well directed

investment of public money in coaching and facilities that made

that leap from the playground to the podium possible.

And this summer we showed ourselves as we are at our best. A country of

progressive values with an inclusive and joyous patriotism

which celebrates our Open, diverse and tolerant society. We celebrated

As she said, it has been one amazing national journey that we

have all been involved in and end an extraordinarily seamless way. We

have come together to deliver something we are probably never

going to deliver again, or certainly not in my lifetime, and

we have done it with a unity of purpose that I think probably is

almost unique in any big project. So, David, another good year for

you?! And enjoyable year. You even had a Tour de France! A few Olympic

medals... And should add Bradley did have something to do with it?

He certainly did. How do you keep doing it year after year after

year? I think there's no one simple answer but there are several things

that need to be looked at. Certainly investment is an

important thing and we would not be in the situation we are in now

Without that refunding. The funding has given us an opportunity to

Hoover up a lot of the young sports people coming out of university. So

they are coming out of the academic side and to infiltrate into the

perimeters of the leading edge of sport in this country is pretty

much like nowhere else I have seen in the world. I really do believe

now that our structure at any level is probably the best in the world

and we need to maintain that and build on that. It has been a tough

journey to get your where you are now? Yes. Really tough. I have been

training since I was 12 and a lot of ups and downs, a lot of injuries

and whether I would carry on boxing. But has stuck at it and got that

gold. You have just stuck in your own world and achieved what you

have achieved, but do you have any sense, perhaps, of the impact of

what you have done might have on women's sport and might make them

do something different from what they normally might do? You know,

to be honest, when I went out, I just thought, I want to win a gold

medal. I won the gold medal and I did not realise the impact I would

have combination winning that. It has been a lot to take in. I didn't

realise how much I would achieve and I am just... You know, it feels

like an honour to me to have people looking up to me and I have

inspired them to take up sport and to get help the. I just think it's

a great feeling and an honour to feel people think of me so highly.

That is it from us here tonight. There's a real buzz in the Midlands

hotel bar about Ed Miliband's speech and when he walked through a

short while ago, he got an eruption of applause. Outside, the bookies

have already started cutting the odds on him becoming Prime Minister.

I think his speech will and have another hearing from many voters

but when it changes the political game, however, will only become

clear in the months ahead. Tomorrow, we hear from the Shadow Home