Defining moments don't come often, but Ed Miliband's closing talk to the Labour Spring Conference could prove to be one. My former colleague on Hackney Council and fellow blogger Luke Akehurst posted about it yesterday as 'the speech of the Conference'. I walked into the hall after he had started. There was Ed centre stage thanking us, reminding us and urging us on. No lectern, no scrolling speech screens, no note cards. As Luke wrote it was "stunningly impressive". I found myself looking up and around - was there some new gizmo hanging from the ceiling to enable him to read from? He rounded off with music to my ears as chair of Save the Labour Party with the words:
And I urge everyone in this party to seize the progressive opportunity. Campaigning in the local elections in May Going out and recruiting new members to our party. And together creating the ideas and policies for a manifesto not just to win, but to be proud of and build the kind of country we want to see.
Looking to the next generation of leaders, I wondered do we need to look any further?