IT'S been an unusual Labour conference.

Where in the past there were raging rows over policies, personality clashes and certain key figures sowing the seeds of division, there have been few policies to get steamed up about, there are fewer and fewer personalities to clash and a kind of warm placidity has embraced the delegates, who have put on a united front.

In fact, this conference has really been about one thing and one thing only – Ed Miliband. Perhaps it was the strategy all along to have a policy-lite conference, to enable the media's unblinking eye to focus entirely on Ed the comprehensive schoolboy, Ed the doting dad, Ed the Harvard professor, Ed the nice guy and Ed the leader with compassion but also steel.

Project Ed was aimed at trying to convince voters the geek could transform himself into a potential prime minister. So there was a lot resting on his keynote speech. And, certainly for the conference audience, he delivered.

Margaret Curran, the feisty Shadow Scottish Secretary, could not contain her enthusiasm as she skipped down spin alley, singing Ed's praises and how he had delivered a fantastic speech. He had, she insisted, displayed a "Thatcheresque" inner confidence; an adjective she meant as a big compliment but which others might raise an eyebrow at.

Even the cynical press corps had to admit the boy done good, and union barons who had berated the Labour leader for not backing them on the public sector pay freeze were overcome with admiration, saying his speech was a "tour de force".

Labour HQ, having had to endure a less than expansive coverage in the newspapers for the first two days of conference, suddenly was delighted that their leader was getting rave reviews.

Yet, it is one thing to convince your party – which of course is very important – but it's another to convince the public.

And what looks and feels good amid the heady atmosphere of a friendly conference hall, might not look or feel good from the cool indifference of a living- room sofa.

This weekend's opinion polls will be interesting reading to see if "Super Ed" has convinced the voters that he has what it takes to stand on the steps of Downing Street the day after polling day.

It was also an unusual Labour conference in that not only did a Tory peer, Lord Coe, receive a standing ovation from the comrades – for his role in the Olympic triumph – but not one, but two, former Conservative prime ministers were invoked to emphasise the party's new core message and rebranding as One Nation Labour.

Sir Robert Peel had got it right, insisted Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, when he promoted community policing with his phrase "the police is the public, the public is the police".

However, it was Mr Miliband's audacious appropriation of the One Nation politics advocated 150 years ago by Benjamin Disraeli, which must have got Tory lieutenants choking on their foie gras. The One Nation theme – which might sit oddly as there are three nations in Britain – will from here on in run through every policy.

While Mr Miliband outlined his plan to split the banks, raise the top rate of income tax back to 50p, reform company takeover rules, hand more power to shareholders, tone down his attack on City predators; and talked more about vocational training and apprenticeships, there was little in the way of policy ideas throughout the conference.

Indeed, the Labour leader has asked his colleagues to go away and draw up One Nation policies. While aides stress he believes in universal benefits, Mr Miliband will look at individual ones as part of his proposed zero-sum review, part of which could take place before the next General Election.

However, it seems clear the issue of benefits such as the winter fuel allowance and free television licences going to the better-off while services are starved elsewhere will be a theme that is likely to be at the top of the agenda for both the 2015 and 2016 elections.