Labour always does the atmosphere brilliantly ahead of leaders' speeches. The idea is that the audience in the hall gets so pumped up by the time the leader appears on stage that it is difficult for him or her to fail. All Right Now was one of the songs that blared out in that long run up to Ed's appearance, along with Van Morrison's Let's enjoy it while we can. We were supposed to feel and think that everything was alright and to enjoy the moment.
The problem was that it was a bit more complicated on the emotions than that. The effects of Saturday and the Ed/David thing – "the fratricidal incident" – somehow infected the hall.
Before Ed appeared people seemed more confused, emotionally, than usual, less open to being swept away by pre-speech musical hype because it was far from clear that it was all alright now with the brothers and the party. People looked nervous, uncertain. How would the brothers and Labour ever get over it?
And where was David? Was that David coming on stage? How did he look? It was must be so awful for him. It was a leader's speech but an occasion as much about the brother whose career he had just knocked spectacularly off-course.
Somehow Ed needed to move people on from the emotional torture of the past three days. David had added to the confusion in everyone's heads yesterday with a brilliant speech that heightened the sense that maybe he should have been the guy giving the leader's address next day.
The main thing Ed needed to do was make the Labour party feel more reassured that it had not blundered and got the wrong Miliband. To do that he had to inspire, connect, get tears in eyes. He needed to move an audience in the way that Blair could – to show something special.
The speech did that. Ed Miliband looked like someone who believed what he said, who was genuine, passionate about winning and improving the country.
The positioning of himself as the younger generation to David Cameron's was clever and worked. The clarity of his message to the unions – that he would not support "irresponsible strikes" was necessary.
He dealt with "Red Ed" as well as he could. He was good on immigration. He put tears in eyes for the right reasons. He was steely and clear and optimistic.
The trauma of the contest and the rejection of David will be traumatic to the whole Labour family for years, but Ed showed the party that despite it – they had plenty of reasons to feel good about their eventual choice.
