Ed Miliband represents a big break with the New Labour of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, because of his explicit promise of higher taxes on the highest earners and the wealthy, and with his shift to much greater economic interventionism.
Whether you think his mandating of a higher minimum wage, his cap on energy prices, his determination to break-up banks and his raid on non-doms are wealth-destroying meddling or fairness-enhancing reforms, they are not same-old, same-old.
And finally even the often sterile debate on how, and how fast. to reduce the gap between taxes and spending - how rapidly to shrink the deficit and start cutting the record national debt - is a big one.
Take just one aspect, the Tories' plan to reduce welfare bills by a further £12bn.
You can see this as either essential to make the nation's balance sheet more resistant to inevitable shocks and an imperative to improve work incentives.
Or you can see it as an attack on the poorest and most vulnerable.
