Ed Miliband and the Labour Party - Going left wing?

In brief, before I get round to dealing with Ed Miliband's recent speech at the Labour conference, the "Blighty" blog at the Economist has an interesting article summarising the Labour Leader's approach: not left-wing, but something much more nuanced.

Essentially, he has to build a coalition of voters who have very difference and mixed opinions on issues, and don't fit into a simple left-right scale.

Interestingly, and very useful for Units 1 & 2, is his announcement of an intention to lower the voting age to 16. This is a useful point to bear in mind when contemplating voting reform in the UK; mind you it may well not be an entirely self-less act. A quote attributed to Churchill goes something like this:

"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains."

The Huffington Post has a list of his announcements here.