Ed Miliband’s speech on one-nation banking this morning was strong on rhetoric but light on policy.
 
The Labour leader has won the rhetoric debate on financial responsibility in the last few weeks, and he wanted to remind everyone of this, as he stood on a shiny stage in Canary Wharf.
 
But what he failed to explain is how he would make the industry comply with his philosophy.
 
He talked of how “the banking sector cannot be divorced from the rest of society”, but offered little in the way of marriage counselling.
The basis of his rhetoric was: “We need a banking system that serves a more responsible capitalism, working for the majority of people and enabling us to pay our way in the world.

We need to learn the most important lesson of the week: we cannot have a banking sector so divorced from the rest of the economy and the rest of society.

We succeed or fail together.”

But finding ideas about how this would be achieved from this particular speech was not easy.
Miliband said we should look at the case for a British Investment Bank, where government provided backing for entrepreneurs when the market failed.

But then he admitted that “goals” like this will be “the core of our business policy review”. So no tangible answers yet.

He called for banks to publish the details of all their large bonuses. But that was nothing new.

And he reiterated his desire for the government to implement rules that the last government legislated for, to make banks reveal how many employees are earning over £1m.
 
This was the basis of his attack at PMQs on Wednesday.
 
So, will people agree with what the Labour leader had to say today? Probably.
 
Will they be any closer to understanding how he would implement his ideas under a Labour government? Probably not.
 
Talking about the speech with a Labour friend afterwards, they joked that it was “reassurance banking”.
 
Rhetoric can only provide comfort for so long.
 
Wonder what brother David thinks…

Tags: Banking bonuses, Banking reform, Ed Miliband