Labour leader grabs empty lines from party 'blues' Labour leader Ed Miliband uttered a stunningly empty call for a new "national mission" at the weekend.
In a polite speech to the annual conference of Blairite think tank Progress, Mr Miliband spectacularly failed to announce detailed policies.
He suggested that "people want more from us" and urged attention to the needs of "millions of people in the middle."
Mr Miliband made soothing noises about the latest fad of "Blue Labour" promoted by Labour peer Maurice Glasman.
The party needed to understand what really mattered to people, ventured the Labour leader.
"It goes to the heart of what Maurice Glasman calls Blue Labour.
"Some have presented this as a nostalgic vision of the past. The Labour equivalent of warm beer, leather on willow and bicycling maidens.
"I think this is to wholly misunderstand what this is about.
"It starts from what we see in our country. A sense of people being buffeted by storm winds blowing through their lives.
"A fear of being overpowered by commercial and bureaucratic forces beyond our control.
"And a yearning for the institutions and relationships we cherish most to be respected and protected."
Mr Miliband hastened to add that this did not mean that every pub could be saved from closure and every high street preserved in aspic. "And we can't stop the takeover of all British companies," he added.
Since 2003 those at the top had seen their living standards rise "at extraordinary rates" while most people had seen their living standards stagnate, including middle-income people in the south of England and elsewhere.
"And it is through this squeeze on the middle, this new inequality, that we need to understand issues like immigration and responsibility.
"Eastern European immigration did place downward pressure on wages. People can argue about the extent. We were too relaxed about that."
Mr Miliband argued that fairness and social responsibility would be achieved by "thinking radically and building a better capitalism - one that is true to our values as a country."
While admitting that Labour's election results in Scotland were "terrible," he rejected the "politics of pessimism," adding that the party faced three "deep" challenges: "How we can enable everyone to get on.
"How we can protect and enhance the British promise for the next generation. And how we preserve the things people value."
