Can Ed Miliband recover from his worst week in politics? In 2011, following the phone hacking crisis, a senior Miliband aide confidently told me: "Ed's earned the right to be listened to now." He had. And, for a while, people did. They heard him talk about "predistribution." They saw him explain his economic philosophy with a Power Point presentation featuring his father and Willy Wonka. They heard their putative prime minister telling them they should embrace the values of the unwashed protesters camped on the steps of St Paul's. And they said to themselves, "thanks Ed, but no thanks." The mere fact Miliband is giving this speech at all proves that he's learnt nothing from the past seven days. "We've had enough Ed!," his party screamed last week, echoing the views of the nation. "Hmmm," his advisers mused, "people don't like Ed. Let's give them more of Ed. Labour's leader has run out of last chances. The idea there is a magical word, or hidden turn of phrase, that will lead to a dramatic public reappraisal of him is a fantasy. It doesn't matter what he says. It will still be Ed Miliband saying it. During the Labour leadership campaign, Miliband's supporters sought to contrast him with his brother through the slogan "Ed Miliband: he speaks human." He doesn't. Which is why the last word in his speech tomorrow should be "goodbye." Isabel Hardman Whatever Ed says, he needs to say it in a way that appears Prime Ministerial. His autumn conference speech failed to do that. He does not need to show us that as Prime Minister he would be able to recite large extracts of yesterday's Hansard by heart, but that he could command authority when standing next to Angela Merkel after a European Council meeting. Over the next few months voters will start trying to imagine Miliband in Downing Street, and he needs to feed their imaginations as much as possible by sounding serious and enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is important because currently the Labour Party gives the impression it is a bit frightened of how hard governing will be. Miliband sees himself as an outsider speaking for the ignored masses. He talks about the need for change in politics, but like other politicians struggles to articulate what that change is other than people electing him as Prime Minister. He needs to do more than claim he will be nicer than the Tories. Will he let ministers be honest when there has been a mistake or a disagreement over policy? Will MPs who speak out be allowed to do so without a ton of bricks landing on their heads shortly afterwards? None of those practices are apparent in the Labour Party, but they are what thoughtful MPs such as Alison McGovern and Gloria de Piero have found voters most crave. If Ed really wants change, he'll need to be bold. James Kirkup First, he shouldn't talk about himself or his leadership. Instead, he should talk about his team and his party. Labour is more popular than its leader. So talk about it, not yourself. Then he should take the fight to the Conservatives and take aim at their vulnerable spots. That means asking voters these simple questions and go on asking them until the election: do you feel better off than you were in 2010? And do you believe David Cameron cares? Polls show that despite the macroeconomic data pointing to a recovery, voters aren't feeling confident. A YouGov poll at the weekend showed only 16 per cent believe they will be better-off in a year's time. Meanwhile 36 per cent expect to be worse off. And while Mr Cameron is generally seen as a stronger leader than Mr Miliband, he is less sympathetic, polling poorly on "understands people like me" questions. Playing up voters' concerns about their own finances and Mr Cameron's lack of understanding of their lives won't necessarily translate into more votes for Labour. It could well fuel Ukip or other fringe parties, or even persuade people not to vote. But all of that makes it harder for the Conservatives to get a majority. Mr Miliband has any number of problems, problems that may well make it impossible for him to secure outright victory next year. But at this point in the game, he should accept that he doesn't have to win. All he has to do is make sure the Conservatives lose. John McTernan Ed Miliband's strength is the popularity of his policies - that's why Labour has had a poll lead for the last four years. Ed Miliband's weakness is that the popularity of his policies is attached to the party and not to him personally. His challenge is to remind the public that the policies they like are the product of the party that Ed leads - and because, not in spite, of the fact he leads it. So, Ed has to go back to his greatest hits: The cost of living crisis. And the NHS. These are the arguments he needs to return to. He has to remind voters that the Living Wage will provide a pay rise, the energy price freeze and rent controls will provide immediate help and a million new homes will transform the housing market. And he has to scare voters. Cameron promised to cut the deficit and not the NHS. He has done the opposite. Just the facts are enough to terrify a public who had become used - under Labour - to 18 week waiting times, rather than the 18 month waits left by the Thatcher/Major government. The NHS is Miliband's ace in the hole - and he needs to play it. The country wants shot of the Coalition. Ed needs to persuade voters that he is not merely an instrument with which to punish the current government. Fraser Nelson The problem for Ed Miliband is that people have stopped listening to him. The story is not what he says, more how he says it. In my (minority) opinion the major speeches so far have been impressive, intellectually coherent and a well-timed attempt to harness the power of rising Left-wing populism. But he is an implausible insurgent; a policy wonk who loves theory and talks in abstractions. People do want Left-wing populism, but it's the SNP and Russell Brand who are succeeding in selling it. He has become a joke, which can charitably be seen as a weapon - the Tories' main frustration is that they can't get voters to worry about him because they're too busy laughing. The brutal truth is that the public, who only ever see politics in peripheral vision, have made up their mind about Red Ed. And no speech, however compelling, will change that. Mary Riddell No more, please, about Ed Miliband. People have heard quite enough personal details. They want to know what Labour would do for the country. Think big. The key themes of this speech - leadership and the economy - should be set in a large canvas. In the week when the world celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as marking Remembrance Sunday, the story should be one of how Britain can be an influencer of peace and a linchpin of Europe. The horizons of British politics are too narrow and the ambitions too slight. Say so. Ed Miliband has to defend migration, which is part and parcel of a buoyant economy, but say too that Labour understands the anxieties of people who feel they are suffering. He must promise to build the schools, the clinics and the homes needed by communities where migration has had a real impact. Ed Miliband is part of an elite. Acknowledge it. But say that Labour's leader will listen to all comers - including big business and other hierarchies - but be a friend to none but ordinary voters struggling to get by. Defend Britain. Allow that the NHS is great, but say that Labour will keep it so. Promise to stop the cheap point-scoring that voters loathe, and pledge to fight an honourable campaign. Say you will risk everything to make the nation secure and as prosperous as it can be, but warn that hard times lie ahead. The politics of illusion on offer from insurgents may sound appealing, but there are no easy rides in prospect. And after tomorrow no more speeches, please, at least for now. It is time not for talk, but for action. Iain Martin When offering Ed Miliband advice it is tempting to begin by saying "I wouldn't have started from here," what with the many policy and presentational mistakes he has made since becoming Labour leader. But he is where he is. Deep in a hole. What can he say in his keynote speech this week to improve matters? All that he can do is calmly acknowledge the reality of his situation, make it clear that he understands many Britons do not think Labour has learned its lesson and try to demonstrate that he would not be as bad or Left-wing a Prime Minister as almost everyone (many Labour voters included) think. There must be no more of those dreadful passages where he tries to tell voters his personal story. They have heard it many times and they are not buying. Instead, the emphasis should be on sounding vaguely statesmanlike, on not whining like a student leader organising a rent-strike and on explaining how he sees the considerable challenges facing Britain. This is the speech he should have delivered at Labour party conference when instead he opted to pace around the stage (a technique that is all very 2007) burbling on like Britain's worst motivational speaker. The model should be his speech to the CBI earlier this week. As others have pointed out - Matthew Parris in The Times for example - this was a perfectly good if under-reported pro-European, pragmatic speech, if you like that sort of thing. He delivered it from behind a podium. It was absolutely fine. This is about the best Ed Miliband and his desperately worried party can hope for at the moment. "Absolutely fine" represents an improvement on his performance in recent months.