By Bagehot
BLIMEY, Bagehot thought, Miliband’s early. Your blogger was in Hyde Park in central London at an anti-cuts demonstration organised by the Trades Union Congress, and the Labour leader Ed Miliband had unexpectedly popped up on stage to address the crowd. The odd thing was, half the crowd was not there yet. It was just before two in the afternoon, and the grassy expanse set aside for the rally, stretching down from Speaker’s Corner, was still sparsely populated with trade unionists and their friends. Mr Miliband was in a suit and tie, and as he appeared and started speaking, a sprinkling of hardline leftists began booing him and jeering. Others listened politely, but without wild enthusiasm. He spoke so early that when I bumped into a member of the shadow frontbench team, half an hour later, she had missed her leader’s speech, and asked me how it had gone down with the crowd.
