Ed Miliband is making a speech t0 the National Policy Forum next week. I’ve been thinking a fair bit about what he should say, what his messages should be, how he should play it. My feeling is that we need to take on a bit of that old Devil Karl Rove’s style. I’ve seen it before in British politics, and it worked pretty well for the Tories. Ashcroft is still there after all.

At the moment, the thing thrown endlessly in Labour’s face is the “what would you do” or “you have no plan” defence. I think we need to take this perceived weakness and show it as a strength. Here’s how we start:

“My friends, as we know we lost the last election. The fact that the Tories failed to win it, should not stop us from accepting and acknowledging that fact. Our manifest had many parts of which we can rightly be proud of, I know because I wrote it. But I must also be humble and take my share in the blame for that loss. That manifesto is no longer a living breathing document but the starting point from which we must now travel to achieve a new policy prospectus that is fit for 21st century living. That will offer the electorate an optimistic but realistic alternative to the Tories, and that will stand as a way of rebuilding our nation after the devastation of the cuts to once again stand tall and proud of our world beating public services.

We know from watching this government flail about that policy making is at it’s worst when it is done too fast, with no understanding of the implications and outcomes – only a shallow single purpose – cut, cut, cut. We only have to look at the catastrophe that has been the cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future Programme to see that rushed policy is rash policy, botched and bad policy.

The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. Under my leadership we will not rush policy through so we have something to announce on the evening news. We will take our time and get it right. We will talk to our members, all of them including the 35,000 new ones about what they want. We all have a say in the policies we will be fighting on the doorsteps for.

But we will do more. We will consult with the people of Britain who will be affected by our policies when we return to power.

• We will talk to Doct0rs, Nurses and – yes – vital hospital administrators about how to put the national back into the NHS after the wrecking ball of Andrew Lansley’s reforms. We will also talk to them about how to make this changes in ways that energise not marginalise them. This will take time.
• We will talk to teachers and parents, teaching assistants, lecturers schoolchildren and students about how to build a system that equips them for all of life, not just the hours between 9-5 Monday to Friday.
• We will talk to business and industrialists, management and workers about how to be a free democracy in the 21st Century while also rebuilding a balanced and manageable economy, not overly reliant on one sector for tax revenues.
• We will talk to diplomats and generals and soldiers and our allies about how to build a progressive liberal foreign policy that is unafraid to intervene where we should, but cautious enough to know where we shouldn’t.

We will do all this as we continue to talk to our members and to the British public at every stage. So that when we do put a manifesto in front of them, it will be detailed, it will be costed, it will be ambitious, it will be realistic and above all it will be theirs.

So no, Mr Cameron, I’m not going to pre-emt that conversation with my party and with the public.  It’s too important to do so simple to have an answer for you, as you are evading my questions over the dispatch box.

Unlike you I want a mandate from my party and the public at every stage, not at none.

I will go to them with the values of fairness and fraternity that we share and ask for their help – humble enough to know I need it.

I will go to them with our understanding of equality and even handedness – strong enough in my belief in them that it will be reciprocated.

I will work with them to rebuild this country out of your 19th century inspired cuts and into the 21st century they deserve.

Tags: Ed Miliband, national policy forum

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