John McDonnell offers different economic tack without sounding scary

Shadow chancellor aims to differentiate not just between Labour and the Tories, but between Corbyn Labour and Miliband Labour

There were no jokes. There was no all-out onslaught on capitalism. It was left to others to deliver the strongest attacks on the Conservative government.

But John McDonnell’s debut party conference speech as Labour’s shadow chancellor was anything but dull. A bit more mainstream, certainly, than some might have been expecting (or fearing), but not boring.