Balls contra The Truth

Silent Hunter

If Balls goes - so must Gordon.

I think the whole, sleazy corrupt bunch of crooks in No10 will have no option but to stumble on together until we get the chance to make the Labour Party history for good.

Did you ever think that OUR country would end up being run like a banana republic?

I'm ashamed to be British.

Polly and Alice's mum

Can we have a link to your column in the NOTW, please Fraser?

logdon

Thatcher told us that she needed her Willy, how long will Brown cling on without his Balls?

Austin Barry

Surely this is not the same Ed Balls who wrote in his Wakefield Express column on 5 December 2008:

"But when things go badly wrong, we all want to know what happened and what will be done about it. And people have to be held accountable when there are significant failures."

Mitch

If there is any justice in this world ed "so what" balls fall from grace will be spectacular and bloody.
This jumped up little s##t and his wife steal 500k a year off the taxpayer and this is what he does at work.....smears other people we are forced too pay.

Obnoxio The Clown

Au contraire, oh silent one, I think Balls is being lined up as a high-level scapegoat to protect the Prime Mentalist.

"See how concerned I am, I even sacked my most trusted advisor. Now can we draw a line under this so that I can get on with making the difficult decisions, etc."

Dr X

One day it's "Damian who?", the next it's "I resign due to family commitments".
Wait and see.

And if he goes - then Brown will have zero credibiity and we will demand a prime ministerial resignation and a general election.

mckenzie

I have no objections to Balls being the next leader of the labour Party. In fact it would be the next logical conclusion in the best interests of all our sanity: A catharsis effect like flushing the toilet after hours of constipation.

Jonathan_T

Fraser / Coffeehousers,

A couple of questions if I may...

i) How damaging would a vote of no confidence in the government be? Is there any liklehood of one being called?

More importantly...

ii) What do you think would have to come out to force Brown to resign?

(Obv we'll have to wait and see what Guido has to post later today - his website appears to have melted.)

Thanks

Paul M

Maybe if Mr. Balls spent more time managing his ministerial brief and less energy engineering smear campaigns, tragedies like the Baby P affair could be better avoided?

Michael Booth

Jonathan T
1) vote of no confidence - well, I think Labour MPs would rally around the Prime Mentalist despite everything, though it would enable the Tories to sound out the nation's fury... but would it achieve anything??? Not sure...
2) Forcing Brown to resign? Well, I reckon if he has not had the decency to resign over raiding pensions, selling off our gold reserves, bankrupting the country, engaging in smears, lies and deceit... what could POSSIBLY force him to resign?

And yes, it's funny that we can't log on to Guido this morning - do you think Gordo's sent the boys in?

Verity

Mitch, If there is any justice in this world ed "so what" balls' fall from grace will be spectacular and bloody.

Oooh, yes. We need a laugh!

I also think Obnoxio is correct. Balls has the stench of scape goat about him So quite amusing all round.

My bet, the Kirkaldy's leading autist will still be in situ a couple of months from now when most of this has been put on Simmer.

We need him to go, though, because otherwise the Tories will win the next election with ineffective, preachy, Europhile control freak social democrat David Cameron at the head of the party and this would be fatal for the country.

Whatever happens, the socialists must win the next election, and stagger on for 18 months or so until there's a vote of No Confidence with a real Conservative leader at the helm.

(I cannot believe that John Redwood voted for Cameron for Leader. I thought he was more astute.)

Hawkeye

Jonathan T said: "i) How damaging would a vote of no confidence in the government be?"

Not damaging at all because turkeys do not vote for Xmas. No matter how bad it gets Labour MPs will not votes against Gordon simply because, for most of them, they would be signing their own death warrant. Most of them stand to lose their seats anyway and if they keep their mouths shut and wallets open then there is a good 12 months of money to be creamed off.

"Is there any liklehood of one being called?"

No.

"ii) What do you think would have to come out to force Brown to resign?"

The clouds would have to part and the sun shine down ebullient rays upon Gordon the Blessed and God's voice boom out of the clouds saying "Arrghhh! Enough of this - call the darn election"

Denis Cooper

Whatever happens, Brown will try to brazen it out, deploying some carefully chosen words to subtly shift the blame onto others.

Those who call for a Commons vote of no confidence forget that he has a sixty-odd working majority, so in the first instance there would have to be thirty-odd Labour MPs with enough sense of decency to vote against him, or alternatively sixty-odd who would abstain.

We know that this would greatly exceed the stock of decency among the present crop of Labour MPs, because otherwise they would have successfully rebelled long before now - over the Lisbon Treaty, or over MPs elected in Scotland voting on England-only laws, to offer just two examples.

Then there are the self-styled "Liberal Democrat" MPs, seventy-odd, led by the euromaniac Clegg.

As most of them willingly broke their manifesto promise to their constituents over the Lisbon Treaty, it's absurd to suppose that they'd allow the Labour government to fall, probably letting in the Tories and thereby opening the door to a UK referendum, before the Irish have voted again in October - after which, either the treaty will be dead, or Cameron's referendum pledge will automatically expire because the treaty has come into force.

We've been here before, with Heath arranging for Liberal "rebels" to help him force through the European Communities Act 1972, and with Major telling Tory rebels that he'd treat the next vote on the Maastricht Treaty as a confidence vote.

Just possibly, Brown will suddenly be diagnosed with some serious medical condition - saving the world does take its toll on a man - but then Harman would take over - and without any internal Labour party election, because all would agree that it would be inappropriate to waste time and energy on that at this time of national crisis, when there's so much that urgently needs to be done.

So I'm afraid that we're stuck with this government until spring 2010, and depending on how the Irish vote we may also be stuck with the Lisbon Treaty.

Unless Cameron pledged that if necessary he would hold a retrospective referendum, in which case our general election would immediately be decoupled from the second referendum in Ireland.

TGF UKIP

Fraser, as you will be aware Maguire appears to be taking his and the Brownites revenge via James Saville in today's Sunday Mirror.

Is it this highly salacious and detailed story, which I notice is being studiously avoided by the Coffee House journos, the reason why the Tories' indignation and outrage at "smeargate" has been comparatively restrained?

What would British political life be without a Tory sex, drugs or cash sleaze story every now and again.

Pity the weather's so nice, putting names to the four Tory characters described so amply in the Mirror would be an ideal Winter's afternoon parlour game.

Still, no doubt we won't have to wait long to find out - unless it really all is a figment of Brown/Balls/Watson/McBrides/Maguire's imagination.

Silent Hunter

OBTC:

Hmmmm? Interesting point.

But could Der Kluncken Fuhrer survive losing his Go-Balls? ;o)

I think we are in for yet more shenanigans at the Downing Street Bunker.

It's hilarious watching the Labour Party coming apart at the seams.

oldtimer

On the BBC News at One today, Lord Mandelson dismissed the e-mails as mere "tittle tattle". None the less we should be in doubt that he will have welcomed the demise of McBride, and will welcome the demise of Balls - if that indeed is to happen.

My impression is that this affair has re-ignited the Brown-Blairite wars. How else can we explain the insider leaks about Balls? Was Mandelson himself behind it? Via a proxy of course.

Susan Hill

I still hear deafening silence from the Tories.

Jenny

Verity - play a new record will you?

Otherwise, I have a suggestion ... keep you comment in a Word file, an just copy/paste every time you feel the need to make a comment in this blog - you'll save yourself lots of time.

Alex

Labour in meltdown ... I am enjoying this.

Hawkeye

TGF UKIP said: "Is it this highly salacious and detailed story, which I notice is being studiously avoided by the Coffee House journos, "

I do not know about them, but to me it looks like a distraction attempt from the Labour smear machine, a desparate move to make us think less of the tories. If Maguire is involved then I would class this as a simple smear attempt.

In any case I give it no credence for the reasons outlined above.

"the reason why the Tories' indignation and outrage at "smeargate" has been comparatively restrained?"

Maybe they are taking Napoleon's advice of "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake". Let Labour get on with it. They are damaging themselves more and more every day. Why give Labour a target to shoot at? A distraction from their self-destruction? Let them implode.

Ken

There's also this little matter: the Baby P case trial (number T20087422) is approaching conclusion:
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/xhibit/centralcriminalcourt.htm

Wight Tory

No chance of a "Balls Bounce" soon me thinks, more like "Hit into the long grass" I'm in the Smithson camp, of taking a dive at the election. Ball et al are all thats wrong with Government, as Portillo found out, a minister isn't immune from being voted out. Infact I'd say that in Balls case and the positioning of himself post election, he's making a target for his consituents in presenting himself as self-serving rather than an officier for them.

Richard

Be careful what you wish for, if the despicable and despised Balls goes Brown might recover in the polls.

One reason for the Tories "silence" is that the BBC quite simply ignores them - the R4 1pm news bulletin today was an open mike for Mandleson (at his very worst I thought) and then a lenghty pointless report about Mandela attending an ANC rally, so hysterical I thought it was radio Moscow reporting Marshall Stalin opening a canal.

Also, surely the Tories just need to stand and watch. If Kevin Maguires doing your enemies spinning the last thing you want to do is interrupt.

Henry Rogers

Verity,

I think your vision of an ideal society is probably rather similar to mine. The EU would not necessarily have a part to play in either! I'm quite sure, however, that any party making such an ideal its platform would never win an election in Britain. The consequences of a Labour victory this year or next would be even harder to unpick than the present situation and there is no certainty that the opportunity to do any unpicking would arise anyway. So an ideal society isn't on offer.

The choice is really between the totally dire and the 'less' than ideal. You would probably say, 'not less than, a million miles away from ideal'. I would say, 'the best one can reasonably hope for'. I do think your judgement of Cameron is harsh and I remain optimistic that he will actually prove that in office. Time will tell. Anyway I shall be voting Tory. Just being rid of the present administration would improve my spirits no end!

If the Tories win then I'd think so much glory will attach itself to Cameron as the architect of victory that he would hold office for some years short of huge cock-ups. It will certainly be a bed of nails though.

If the Tories lose I don't think a rebellion against him would be very likely except in the case of a spectacular loss. I'm sure you've followed ConservativeHome surveys so you won't be underestimating Cameron's popular support amongst the membership in the country. The comments in the CH blogs are completely untypical of the results which emerge from such surveys. The Parliamentary Party is another story of course but, while they can depose, they can't be sure of getting any successor they want regardless.

This is all fascinating stuff, if a bit alarming at times. Anyway, discussing it makes a change from fuming at malevolent t*rds in other parties.

Hysteria

what Hawkeye said

Liz Brown

There is no need for the Tories to do anything - liebour is gaily self destructing without any help from their friends

THX1138

TGF- I just read the Mirror story.

"Pity the weather's so nice, putting names to the four Tory characters described so amply in the Mirror would be an ideal Winter's afternoon parlour game."

This quote won't help the identification too much.

"One night he was having a session with me and another girl and we got so bored we left him handcuffed to his radiator for a couple of hours while we went out to a nightclub."

Boring Tories, one wouldn't no where to start.

The worst part of the whole Mcpoisongate scandal is the 15 mins of fame given to the loathsome Nadine Dorries. WTF was she wearing in the Sunday Times picture, sorry but leather skirts not a good look but looking at the tastes of "top Tories" she probably thought it would get her a job in the shadow treasury team!

Liz Brown

have just glimpsed at the article in the Mirror and if true Hoorah - give me an old fashioned sex scandal any day of the week -

jon dee

Oldtimer re World at One.

Would you buy a car,or anything else,from slippery Peter Mandelson?

Of course not.

Would you vote Shaun Ley as investigative journalist of the year?

Of course not.

Would you expect an interview between the two, to be a complete waste of time, and on the BBC?

Of course we would.

Oscar

TGF UKIP - is the Sunday Mirror really your favoured reading matter? Do you really think squalid sex stories about unnamed 'Tory' have any traction? Do you really think this is more important than the orchestrated, taxpayer funded, poison emanating from No.10 and governing our political life? I've always thought your hatred of the Tories somewhat overdetermined, even by UKIP standards, but now I truly do wonder if you are not a Labour party stooge after all.

TGF UKIP

Hawkeye and others, you may well be right and I hope so.

However, if this madam's story and its detail does turn out to be true then it really is a double whammy for the Cameron Tories.

Firstly, it would demonstrate that "smeargate" was not all smoke without some fire.

But secondly and even worse for
them will be that they will be a laughing stock given what a bunch of masochistic over-nannied wimps the details make the starring members look.

At least a good old sex scandal featuring studs like Alan Clarke, Cecil Parkinson and Steve Wotsisname can provoke envy and admiration as well as amusement.

This madam's lot though, just seem wimpishly pathetic.

THX1138

Liz B- I look forward to these so far un-named Tories bringing forward legislation legalising prostitution & drugs.

Oscar Before you slag off the Sunday Redtops I would remember that the author of this blog post Fraser Nelson has a weekly column in the biggest and best of the lot The News of The Screws . As for whether these stories will have any traction, if true of course they will and no doubt they they will plastered across the front of the Newspaper that Fraser moonlights for and whose watch as editor Tory spin doctor in chief Andy Coulson allowed a colleague to phone tap the Royal Family.

I would have said that should have stopped an major political party hiring someone so tarnished but no , the Tories couldn't wait to get him on board. I wonder what the Queen thinks?

Probably the same as me - Same meat, different gravy!

Chuck Unsworth

@ Liz Brown

"give me an old fashioned sex scandal any day of the week"

Never mind the scandal bit. Old fashioned sex all by itself would suit me just fine.....

oldtimer

jon dee

What you say re Lord Mandelson is true. That is not to say you should ignore what he says. For he says things for a reason - some for our consumption, some for journalists` consumption and some for Labour party consumption. Divining those reasons and their implications is, I would have thought, of interest those who frequent this site.

True Bred Pomponian (ex MoD)

By the by, these sort of people are remarkably common in the civil service. Nothing much else to do, I guess.

Hawkeye

TGF UKIP said: "However, if this madam's story and its detail does turn out to be true then it really is a double whammy for the Cameron Tories.

Firstly, it would demonstrate that "smeargate" was not all smoke without some fire."

The two "scandals" are totally different. In one you have publicly paid for officials (SpAds and MPs) running smear campaigns to further their own careers whilst the other story is a good old standard "Tory MP in sex romp" tabloid story.

Nothing odd about the tory story - perfectly normal behaviour for a tory MP. Maybe you are too young to remember one tory who was described in his obituary as "future Prime Minister material". He was found dead on his kitchen table, dressed in womens clothes with an apple stuck in his mouth.

SOP for tory sex scandals....

JohnAnt

Interesting dilemma for Brown. If he's the guilty party and he lets Balls take the rap, Balls will give Brown an almighty clunk on his way out, and Brown will suddenly look weak.
OTOH, if Balls is indeed the power behind the spin (which I don't believe) he'll have to go. Trusted lieutenant found out: that'll mean Bean's on Brown Toast.
They'll play very dirty before the final whistle: I hope Cameron and Osborne have some defensive action ready. They'll need it.

Pete

Interestingly, on his return from holiday, Nick Robinson gave the lie to almost everything Balls said...

jon dee

Oldtimer -

We agree.

TGF UKIP

Hawkeye, forgive me but but there is a constant running through both "smeargate" and "madamgate" and it is Osborne.

And unfortunately far from being "too young" to remember the myriad of past Tory sex scandals, I can not only tell you that the subject of the one your refer to was Stephen Milligan but that he was also reported to be a long standing friend of none other than our own very dear Andrew Annabel Neil.