Kinnock is at the heart of Red Ed's Labour

There is a process whereby political parties and broadcasters line up representatives to respond to the leader's big conference speech. This is a nightmare job for all concerned as the broadcasters want to get someone their viewers have actually heard of, while the party press office want to put up someone who can string a sentence or two together. It is amazing how difficult it is to achieve both these goals.

A further consideration, one led by the leader's closest advisers, is to ensure the all-important initial analysis comes from someone very close to the leader, in complete agreement with the direction of travel, and on top of the policy detail. In opposition the Conservative Party used Oliver Letwin, George Osborne and Michael Gove to do this job; all figures at the heart of the modernisation of the party who had fed into the David Cameron's speech.

Yesterday, the man put forward by the Labour Party press office, leading the charge on the broadcast round immediately after Ed had left the building, was Neil Kinnock. This is a a clear signal that Kinnock is at the heart of Red Ed's Labour Party and something the electorate, who failed to vote for him in their many millions, should know.