Ed Balls is now a caricature of Ed Balls

Martyn Rowe

Ed Balls is straight outta the Brown school of shamelessness.

Just like after 1992 when Brown denied ever being in favour of the UK's entry into the ERM (he got away with it too) now Balls will shamelessly deny ever agreeing to cut the deficit.

It's pure positioning. Let's hope it wins him the Labour leadership. He would split the party; he's too headstrong and controlling to run a united team.

Chris lancashire

Whilst I am one of the many that think Balls as Labour leader is the best thing that could happen for the Conservatives, I have to agree that the risk of having Balls in charge of the nation's finances is a risk not worth taking.
To have this bulge-eyed aggressive bully happily wasting what's left of the nation's finances would be the ultimate disaster.

Tiberius

It may be counter-intuitive, but it would concern me if Balls became Labour leader. He's capable of doing a Holland on the Coalition, and each of the two parties individually, and may not replicate Robben's misses.

strapworld

I think Balls should be sent to Afghanistan as our ambassador to the Taliban. I am sure they will appreciate his honesty and even handedness. He should be allowed to take his dear wife with him as well both for company and for her expert views on everything and anything.

I think a month of Balls and the Taliban will fly the white flag.

Scott

Ed talking "balls" again

David Booth

So Ed Balls wants to stand on the side line to see what others achieve before he will commit himself to telling us his intentions.
Which has confirmed my suspicions about Ball that as well as being a bully he is also a coward, it is often the case that the two go together

paulg

I think its best if this clown is shouting like john the baptist, against all: logic, theory, rational or reason.

His ideas of just prining money will rapidly lead to hyper inflation and turn the economy into a basket case.

Mike Thomas

We are not stupid, Labour's own planned cuts were only marginally less strigent that the Government's.

This volte-face is breathtaking in its contempt. Balls is the perfect New Labour leader, perhaps feeding it his unique brand of poison is the way to finally kill off Labour once and for all.

Alex

Makes you wonder about Oxbridge and Kennedy Scholars!

Makes you also wonder why he doesn't wear his glasses rather than contacts - so he doesn't look less weird!

Rabyrover

Balls suffered one of the largest swings from Labour to the Conservatives. Morover, his majority of 1100 was swamped by the 1500 votes of UKIP and 3500 votes of BNP. It is moot point as top whether he would have held on in the absence of these two minor parties. He is another Foot, this time clothed in Yorkshire woollens

Mycroft

The trouble is that a lot of people really do believe this sort of nonsense; it's not in anyone's interests to have someone who assumes such an irresponsible stance on this issue as leader of the Opposition. He must know that it's nomsense though? Surely?

Jabba the Cat

Balls 4 Leader!

Pete-s

I have just checked Hansard and Balls voted for the Fiscal Responsibility Bill; which laid down in Law that the deficit was cut by 50%. Perhaps dementia is setting in and forgot how he voted.

SusanHill

The worst result of the entire May election was Balls retaining his seat. Bar none.

Senor Frizby

It's a shame that there is a risk of an idiot like Balls getting the Labour leadership. I'm not a Labour voter but it would be more reassuring to know that the opposition were challenging and driving the debate on the country's finances rather than stifling and warping it.

Begone Ballsonian Boggle!

Irene

How can a Labour Leader be in a marginal seat?

phil

This man balls and his wife are the most cynical manipulators of facts that it has ever been my displeasure to observe -He and she both know the mess that they have got us into and now because they are the opposition they are opposing any attempt to put us back on course ,purely for party politics.
Chris Lancashire is exactly right .,they are a menace .

Common sense

Take off the ideological blinkers and you can see that, as ever, Balls is talking, er, sense. The IMF and CBI have recently come out against the coalition government's cuts. Labour's would have been unnecessarily grim, too. Balls is right to expose the discussion that went on while Labour was in government and his opposition to cutting too deep. Anyone who believes in 25%, let alone 40%, cuts now is either a masochist or a sadist or both but certainly not an economist.

Widmerpool

Balls may be following in the footsteps of Michael Foot -an unelectable Labour leader. The only difference being Michael Foot was altogether a much nicer person!

michael

I think he really does believe his own lies.

Anan

Ed ball for leader of the Labourites!!

phil

Common sense
July 12th, 2010 4:40pm You need not be the only one here who thinks the cuts are dangerous ,I do to ,risking folding business,s loss of jobs therefore loss of taxation and a huge increase in the social security payments -The loss of entrepreneurs who are the employers and may never come back -I WORRY like hell ,but it does not alter my opinion of this appalling couple from whom I would not buy a second hand car if it was free:)

Paul T Horgan

Balls would be required to defend Brown's premiership throughout his leadership. he is too close to Brown to become leader.

I suspect he will be part of the Blair/Mandelson/Campbell hatchet job. None of these people want Balls as leader

TGF UKIP

Alarming though it must be for both of us, I actually agree with Tiberius. Not only does Balls "get" propaganda and populism which are foreign subjects to Dave and The Mekon but he can present a feisty Jack the Lad image which will have an appeal not only to Labour activists but to the parts that Southern Smoothie Dave cannot reach - notably the C2 voters who went missing for Labour on May 6th.

If Balls does win then this country will have something it hasn't had since before December 2005 - an Official Opposition worthy of the name.

Simon Stephenson

Ok, Common sense (4.40pm), let's assume that we follow your prescription of not instigating immediate cuts. What's your best estimate of how this will transmit through to interest rates, compared to the interest rate scenario you expect in a situation where cuts are made immediately? Leading on from this, what would you estimate to be the nett of the stimulus provided by additional spending arising from the deferred cuts, and the contraction brought about across the economy by the interest rate hike (if any) that would result from such a deferral of deficit reduction?

Remember to figure into your calculations that the cut-cancellation stimulus is a one-off, whereas the interest rate hike (if any) could remain in place way into the future.

phil

Simon Stephenson
July 12th, 2010 9:14pm-why not tell us ?,you seem to be expert ,but do address my comments as well .btw tell us what your qualifications are so we can evaluate your advice -fair enough?

Simon Stephenson

phil : 9.59pm

The key here is to differentiate between:-

* the cyclical element of the deficit - that part that is caused by lower taxation and higher social security during a recession

and

* the structural element - that part that will remain when the cyclical element is reversed at the end of the recession, when the economy moves back into growth.

Over the course of the business cycle, the cyclical element is defined so as to nett out to zero. The years of deficit in the recesiion are matched by the years of surplus during the boom. Providing it is realistically calculated, and there is no attempt to secrete structural spending in the cyclical pool, no one is really concerned about the cyclical element of the deficit.

What is of concern is the structural deficit. How much has the day in-day out spending on public services been allowed to creep above cyclically-adjusted tax revenues. It is here that the remedial action is centred, both in the minds of those who have lent us money over the years, and who we need to continue to do so in the future, and also in the minds of the ministers responsible for the national finances.

Labour's financial management in office was worse than that of a spendthrift teenager - worse because it didn't confine it's overspending to unaffordable one-offs, it set up structures and commitments to future spending that require active and painful action to reverse. It gave false hopes and promises to thousands of public employees whose jobs and levels of remuneration were only sustainable if "the boat came in" every year, to order.

Thisis the legacy that the new government is having to deal with.

My qualifications? Well, as it happens I have a degree in economics, but you would be unwise to take paper qualifications as the be-all and end-all of knowledge and understanding. There are plenty of excepionally able autodidacts out there without a formal qualification to their name.

Morley Made

Balls would be an absolute disaster for Labour. I saw him during the election campaign in a hustings meeting conducted by The Independent.

The young Tory candidate absolutely toasted him. Balls tried all the dirty tricks but this young Tory kid was easily able to rebut everything Balls said. The animosity towards Balls from the assembled crowd(it was held in the street) was quite frightening.

I am only staggered that Balls wasn't beaten and I suspect that if the Tories are even half popular in 2015, then he might well be given his 1100 majority.

Fergus Pickering

Of course fat Balls won't win. Bananaman will win. Where have you lot BEEN lately?

bohodotcom

Were Balls to win, would the Rory Bremners of this world be cheering? I fear not.
In the East End of London, people who need cheering up have a good 'knees up'. But in Labour circles they have a good 'Balls-up'

phil

Simon Stephenson
July 13th, 2010 9:52am-thanks Simon -it looks like we are the only two interested ,the rest just do not like ed balls :)-I have written previously and at length on this subject but nobody took a blind bit of notice-c,est la vie :)

Stuart Seacole Smith

Ed Balls' "creative tension" comment on yesterday's Today programme, describing the relationship between Brown and Blair was priceless:
http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2010/07/euphemism-of-the-day-brown-blair-war-was-creative-tension-balls/

I do wonder though, if he really thinks he can get away with this sort of thing and stand any chance of getting even the most gullible person to put the slightest bit of trust in him. He must think voters are just a bunch of village idiots.