I TOLD union leaders last autumn that Miliband isn't the "Red Ed" who both they and the Tories wanted for different reasons.

The general secretaries mobilised the workers to vote for him anyway, believing he'd be "more malleable" than big brother David.

The result is Labour has a leader who feels he must lecture the TUC to demonstrate his independence, slapping down the unions to win grudging applause from Right-wingers who'll devour him at their convenience.

As Unison's thoughtful Dave Prentis remarked, Miliband didn't need to poke public service staff with a sharp stick by reminding them he opposed the one-day strikes over pensions.

They'd not forgotten and Miliband shouldn't be allowed to think he was wise. Because the industrial action in schools and across the civil service was a public success.

Parents were sympathetic, blaming the ConDems, not teachers

I went to a rally in Central London and it was an uprising of Middle Britain. The unions won the argument, blowing away the pernicious myth that pensions were either gold-plated or unaffordable.

Cabinet Minister Francis Maude's future prospects slipped behind him when his own figures were quoted back at him to dismantle the Government's case.

Yet still Ed Miliband felt the urge to put the loafer in yesterday, briefing his homily in advance to win plaudits from those too who think unions should be seen, not heard.

Strikes can be a double-edged sword capable of leaving a very nasty cut.

But Miliband should listen to a recording of how naive he sounded, telling union activists about the realities of life at work.

Talk about condescension, when the audience in the basement of Congress House hall were the very people fighting job cuts, protecting wages as well as defending services.

He enjoyed a magic carpet ride from academic household to the finest universities and cushy posts in Westminster and Whitehall.

Miliband probably thinks a P45 is a Walther handgun in a spy movie.

The people he lectures know it's a dismissal notice that will spell hardship, frustration and misery.

Unions have their faults and general secretaries occasionally get carried away with the rhetoric.

But Miliband should have bashed the bankers and not pointed his finger at trade unions.

Casino capitalists collapsed the economy, inflicting more pain than any union ever did.

Britain's problem isn't unions threatening strikes.

The problem for Britons is unions aren't stronger.

If they were, living standards wouldn't be falling so fast.

Maybe next year at the TUC, Mr Miliband could, if invited, admit that home truth.