Ed Miliband sets out CV for 'No 10 job'

Today's conference speech marked the start of an eight-month job application.

So said Ed Miliband. The role to be filled - prime minister. The decision to be taken - by you next May.

The big theme of his speech was not the threats the country faces - he didn't mention the deficit once and he didn't say whether he would back RAF strikes on IS forces in Iraq or Syria - but his repeated insistence that together the country could build a better future

It was a speech built on a single word - together - repeated over 50 times and a single theme - the claim that Labour, unlike the Tories, would not allow people to struggle on their own.

There was also a single new policy announcement to capture it all. Extra funding for the NHS paid for, he claimed, not by extra borrowing or extra taxes on ordinary people but by taxing expensive houses, taxing the tobacco firms and hitting tax avoiding hedge funds.

There was, of course, much more than that. He spelt out Labour's six 10-year goals over more than an hour.

Some in the audience struggled to stay awake but Ed Miliband won't worry about that. He believes that what will win him the next election is not detailed policy but a different philosophy about how Britain ought to be governed.