Balls tries to force the tax debate

john miller

Err, shurely, Balls then made a big error in not adhering to Labour commitments on schools and teachers? I know Labour ministers have always tended to live for the moment, but doesn't he remember slashing his own budgets?

oldtimer

Two observations:
First, as you say, it is an attempt to change the issue from the Labour U-turn on cuts to a supposed Tory tax black hole - this time the said £10 billion.
Second, arguing the case for yet higher taxes does not sound like a winning formula to me - especially taxes on jobs. Brown, Balls and co have already taxed us beyond tolerable levels.

I put it down to soundbite politics. Coming from Balls it will not carry much, if any, credence.

PS There have been complaints about the comment window obscuring the article and other comments on it. This need not be so. If you grab the white surround around the comment box, you can move it anywhere within the opened page.

Dan

Balls has made a big error by assuming that the vast majority of the electorate takes him seriously. I don't think I've seen a more unimpressive politician, apart from possibly his utterly useless wife.

Silent Hunter

Perhaps he could start with paying his and Yvettes proper tax on their own homes and second properties.

Balls the Hypocrite.

Nicholas

Ed Balls is 42 but it is very hard to believe this when watching him being interviewed because he appears to be so immature and, despite his supposedly vaunted intelligence, so shallow. His twists and turns are interesting but really only part of the wider New Labour deviant approach to policy, which is to spin, spin, spin even if doing so involves lies and denying or re-writing the historical fact. Judging by the shambolic record of his department I suspect that much of his success (in terms of New Labour positioning) must be down to patronage (Brown) and guile. What is noteable, although hardly surprising in this age of toothless journalism and shameless office holding, is that he has not been sacked or pilloried to the point of resignation for some of his appalling cock-ups and transparent attempts to divert blame. And this pop-eyed, disingenuous creature represents what passes for a minister of state these days.

His Master's Voice quite recently made a bare-faced denial of any cuts during PMQs, at the same time attempting to establish a new pejorative for the "10% Tories", and instead insisted on government increases. Now the mirage has shifted like the sand it was built on to become "better" cuts than the Tories. How on earth do the journos let them get away with this nonsense when not even a year has passed since the lies? Is it because the Leftist conspiracy is so deeply entrenched in Britain that most members of the MSM would rather have a rotten, stinking travesty of a Labour government than a Tory one? Or is it because expectations about this risible regime are so low anyway that a weary cynicism replaces public interest reporting?

Brown's New Labour regime consistently creeps low like insect life and like insect infestation seems to be hard to eradicate. Where are the exterminators with the tools to do the job? Not on the opposition benches and certainly not in the MSM where they are outnumbered in equal parts by Labour apologists and Labour leadership speculators.

mitch

Ed balls is possibly the worst labor minister ever! he cannot lie to save his life, the body language,the blinking and sweating the utter rubbish he spouts.
its really awful to watch him on TV except when his portillo moment finally arrives.

Peggy.Day

While Balls should be given credit for taking himself seriously(while the rest of us giggle) and his belief of himself and his abilities,I do wish he would just shut it & go away.
I DO NOT CARE IF THERE IS A 60billion 'gap' as long as Labour are kicked out!
They will use their conference to try and tell the British electorate that the Conservatives would be rubbish at running the economy?I am not a maths genious,but I'm not thick either.Be under no illusion ALL you Labour thicko's we KNOW there WILL be a MASSIVE round of spending CUTS, We also KNOW there will be tax rises and we KNOW it will, once again be the Conservatives who will be the political party that has to implement this medicine.We Mr Balls will STILL kick you lot out and vote the Conservatives in,my advice to the halfwit from Labour reading this is..GO TELL BROWN & CO TO TELL US HOW THEY WILL FIX THEIR MESS WITHOUT ANY MORE STUPID BORROWING OR PRINTING SHENANIGANS,INSTEAD OF TRYING TO RUBBISH THE OPPOSITION!!!
That is what the Labour conference should be about..LABOUR AND THEIR POLICIES!!!!

The Laughing Cavalier

£10 bn a year can easily be found in the QUANGOs, now spending £140 bn annually under Labour, a rise of £115 bn. As for Balls, we should remind ourselves that this self-proclaimed genius was the architect of the failed tripartite regulation of the financial sector and until everything went belly up, boasted of being Brown's brain. Much of the blame for the mess we now find ourselves in lies with his and Brown's mismanagement of the economy.

Miranda

I'm beginning to think that Balls is so desperate to try and 'rubbish' the Tories, that he has lost sight of how unpalatable and silly his ploys sound. First, he wants to get rid of teachers to save money - what before the Quangos, and the Diversity Managers and all the expenses paid to Labour's followers !! Does he really think we are that blind. Then he wants to criticise the Tories for wanting to reduce tax - ummmmmm sounds like a good idea to me, not least if it goes back into small business. Then chides the Tories for their sums - yes, that is right, Balls; the man who has overseen some of the biggest fiascos in Education of the last 10 years !!! Well you may not be able to fix education Balls, but the Tories can still cut the Quangos, the Diversity Managers and the expenses to friends of Labour!! We are not idiots, Balls - but you are, and a liar and a scoundral, not to mention a tax dodger!!!!!

Hysteria

Peggy - don't prevaricate - tell them what you really feel!!

I absolutley agree - and to the point Nicholas raises about why the MSM do not pick up the lies and attack - career protection, patronage, the lobby systen - who knows? - but the power of investigative journalism has moved to the Internet

Liz Brown

Sowhatballsupcooper make me come out in hives

Verity

Doesn't he have a face one longs to punch?

Holly

Yes Verity, but what about you giving a thought ON THE TOPIC.
Thank you
ps. Not a wangle, fangle ramble just a comment.
Thanks

TimC

The eponymous Mr Balls speaks his mind!

Verity

Holly - perhaps lefty trolls are too ill-educated to know that giving editorial direction to contributors is the remit of the editor of a publication.

Your rejoinder might be "So what?"

Many thanks for your vapid "thoughts", though.

Verity

Tim C - "The eponymous Mr Balls". V good!