Renaissance Balls
Fraser Nelson 5:43pm
Balls is back. The author of Gordon Brown's economic policies for 15 years. The man who
bears more responsibility for anyone else - other than Brown - for the asset bubble and the consequent crash. But I suspect that, right now, Theresa May is doing cartwheels and George Osborne
cursing. Balls, for all his many drawbacks, is the most ferocious attack dog there is. His brilliance (and I hate using that word) at using numbers as weapons far surprassed anything the Tories
could manage in Opposition. His policies are reckless: to borrow, and to hell with the consequences. His modus operandi is to launch around-the-clock attacks. He has powerful media contacts, and
uses them to full effect. He is the most able fighter in Labour's frontbench, as he proved in the leadership contest. Unloveable, yes, which is why he'd make a bad leader. But if I were Osborne, I
know who'd I be praying not to be put up against.
On TV tonight, Balls was grinning like a lottery winner, and immediately attacked the government for inflation - something everyone suffers. Its an obvious attack line, but was not obvious to Milipede and Johnson. Yes, Balls is unloveable. But he's hired as a hit man. His role is to be the vicious villain: the economic equivalent to Jaws in the Bond films. He operates through proxies. And, yes, he predicted a double-dip - but the Tories would be ill-advised to crow. The economic ground is not cleared of landmines (especially with all these wobbling dominoes in Europe) and if something blows up, Balls will say something Osborne never could in opposition: 'I told you so'. So, CoffeeHousers, I know you loathe Balls - but that doesn't make him any less lethal.
As for Alan Johnson - what a farce. Ed Milliband looks like a plank. Choosing a Shadow Chancellor is the most important thing you can do as Opposition Leader. He chose wrong, and everyone thinks so. Even the man he appointed. It won't be long now before Johnson himself does an Estelle Morris and says "I was never up to it". If there was a last straw, I'd say it was the Sky News interview where he didn't know the employers rate for National Insurance. No one thought he'd stay forever. But to leave after just a few weeks? It's amazing - but Johnson is a fairly normal bloke. That's what makes him abnormal for Westminster. He didn't like the job, was visibly failing - why prolong the agony? There are intriguing rumours in Westminster that his resignation was sped along by impending revelations in the press. But I would be shocked, shocked if they were true. After all, that's the Lib Dems' job now.
Previous
lids
January 20th, 2011 5:50pm Report this commentI suspect everyone is overplaying the brilliance of Ed Balls. Millions of British people are having to live with the consequences of his policies. Real hardship for so many families in the UK.
Should be easy meat for the Chancellor. Labour still have no economic policies. What is Balls going to recommend, more spending?
Nick
January 20th, 2011 6:03pm Report this commentBalls will be a formidable adversary for Osborne in Parliamentary debate but he is remarkably unpopular with the electorate.
The "trust fund", "sneering" and "arrogant" personal attacks on Osborne have now been neutralised by the appointment of (to most people) an equally unattractive person to shadow Osborne.
Johnson's ignorance that food didn't attract VAT was surely much worse than not knowing the NI rate. Though that was a resigning matter in itself.
Dame Helena Handcart QC
January 20th, 2011 6:04pm Report this commentCheered me up. Postman Pat was a nice guy in the wrong job. Balls is a nasty guy in the wrong job. He will never, can never, escape the shadow of what he and Gordy McDebt did. It is the open goal that lasts as long as he stays in public life. I look forward to much lip curling and sneering from nice Mr Osborne.
Adrian Sells
January 20th, 2011 6:04pm Report this commentYou're right - many detest Balls. And why? Because he and Brown were the main authors of the dire state of Britain's current finances. If the coalition government has any conviction in the general (too feeble) direction of their policies, he is not to be feared.
This man has been wrong, wrong, wrong. Surely it is not beyond the ability of the current administration to make this clear. If not, then their communication skills are less impressive than those of the average newt.
Peter From Maidstone
January 20th, 2011 6:05pm Report this commentWhy is Balls any threat to the Conservatives at all UNLESS the Conservatives refuse to defend conservative values and the Conservative Party.
If they need help they only need to ask the good folk here on the CH wall. I am sure that we can come up with a great many good lines of attack.
"Balls, the man who bankrupted Britain is driving Labour's economic policy again. Can we afford him?"
Come on. Just ask. It's easy.
Mainy
January 20th, 2011 6:06pm Report this commentThis whole article reads like an application for a spin doctors position within the coalition.
Nick
January 20th, 2011 6:15pm Report this commentShould have made Yvette Cooper Shadow Chancellor.
She understands economics, is good on TV and people like her.
Magnolia
January 20th, 2011 6:17pm Report this commentBrown back at the Treasury!
In all but name.
les
January 20th, 2011 6:21pm Report this commentCan't wait, Balls is a gift!
Anyone else notice Boulton's "slip" of the tongue with "Conservative led government"
Rhoda Klapp
January 20th, 2011 6:22pm Report this commentFraser doesn't wannabe a spin doctor. Fraser wants a safe seat, in the tradition of Spectator editors. Didn't one actually end up as Chancellor?
seb
January 20th, 2011 6:25pm Report this commentIf Ballzup and Milimbecile win the next election, it really will be a case of the last person to leave having to turn off the lights. The true horror of the situation lies in the fact that millions of voters have absolutely not one effing clue what Balls's involvement in putting each and every one of them into debtor's prison.
Naomi Muse
January 20th, 2011 6:26pm Report this commentMaybe we should send him diving in full gear to find the Skylon.
Percy
January 20th, 2011 6:34pm Report this comment@Nick
"Should have made Yvette Cooper Shadow Chancellor.
She understands economics, is good on TV and people like her."
Excellent, very funny, especially the people like her gag at the end.
Dimoto
January 20th, 2011 7:09pm Report this commentLaws needs to be back as Chief Secretary, he would easily best Balls on the economics jousting.
And he is good at slyly putting the boot in.
les
January 20th, 2011 7:13pm Report this commentTheresa May is a lady - Cooper is Balls in a skirt!
Baron
January 20th, 2011 7:13pm Report this commentfrom a certain angle, Balls reminds one of young Leonid Brezhnev, the Red Menace monstrosity of not so distant past, and not only visually. Bad omen for the mutant heir to the discredited creed of communism, I reckon.
JohnBUK
January 20th, 2011 7:14pm Report this commentI see Mr Robinson of the BBC is quite convinced Mr Johnson's departure is all above board. Nice trusting man that he is!
GDT
January 20th, 2011 7:15pm Report this commentI have a sense of dread. There is a very real possibility that this man could be the one to put the final nail in the coffin of UK plc. I need to make plans to emmigrate in 2015 me thinks.
AngloWelshDragon
January 20th, 2011 7:17pm Report this comment@ Nick
I don't like her!
The Maksed Marvel
January 20th, 2011 7:23pm Report this commentNice job on BBC News this evening, Fraser. Stick to your points.
robbo
January 20th, 2011 7:36pm Report this commentFerocious? Am I the only person who heard him interviewed by Eddie Meir that time when he was asked what were his fundamental differences of policy with Gordon Brown, and he spent an embarrassing few minutes in total silence?
Tiberius
January 20th, 2011 7:43pm Report this commentBalls is only "brilliant", Fraser, because so much of British society is too stupid to realize that gobby lefties are not actually the guardians of all things soft and furry. This natural advantage for Labour is why Cameron did not get that majority.
I haven't given up on our electorate completely, though - Tim Montgomery might yet get his Mainstream Majority in 2015. After listening to Cameron fighting the NHS reforms corner, he might just win the battle to wean the voters off the teat.
A load of Balls might end up helping him do that.
David Ossitt
January 20th, 2011 7:50pm Report this commentThere are intriguing rumours in Westminster that his resignation was sped along by impending revelations in the press.
David Ossitt
January 20th, 2011 7:50pm Report this commentSorry.
Fraser Nelson.
“There are intriguing rumours in Westminster that his resignation was sped along by impending revelations in the press.”
Fraser why are you not telling all of us what you know about these rumours?
AF
January 20th, 2011 8:03pm Report this commentAttack dog,really,dont make me laugh.
rabid more like it.
Balls will overeach himself and be more pin
prick than balls.
dorothy wilson
January 20th, 2011 8:12pm Report this commentIf ever there was an example of the Peter Principle - people promoted to the level of their incompetence - you have it here. And you can take your pick over whether that refers to Johnson, Milliminor or Balls - or all three.
Archibald
January 20th, 2011 8:23pm Report this commentDid the ghost of Sid James write this script? Will we see The Sun headline tomorrow of "JOHNSON OUT; BALLS IN'? Or do you think they'll just do something about Johnson's johnson and keep Balls under wraps for later?
Anon
January 20th, 2011 8:25pm Report this commentThe boys are back in town. Brown's special advisers when he was ruining the country's finances from the Treasury are now running Labour. The two Ed's team up again to finish Gordon's work: borrow, borrow, borrow, tax, tax, tax.
Cynic
January 20th, 2011 8:45pm Report this comment"His policies are reckless: to borrow, and to hell with the consequences." Say it loud, say it long and say it repeatedly! Mind you, since most of the population doesn't seem to be able to cope with running their lives so that they live within their means and just about everybody under 30 doesn't understand compound interest, I don't expect the fact that Blinky Balls had a hand on the tiller when El Gordo was steering the country onto the rocks to have much impact. Balls whose bright idea was the FSA? Nice to see New Labour has realised where it went wrong and broken entirely with the past - oh, hang on a minute!
Woody
January 20th, 2011 8:51pm Report this commentDavid Ossitt - do keep up.
It appears EdBalls new SPAD has dug the dirt on Alan Johnson. Alleged affair with civil servant etc, etc. Shades of Damien McBride!
Depressing.
Dimoto
January 20th, 2011 8:57pm Report this commentYes, you do wonder if Red is laying a cunning trap for Balls by appointing him Shadow Chancellor.
They are like rats in a sack !
Dimoto
January 20th, 2011 9:05pm Report this commentDavid Ossitt:
Fraser is far too much of a gent, to spell out the real depravity of the Balls unit.
(That's why we need Guido).
paulg
January 20th, 2011 9:13pm Report this commentEgo and hubris have forced them out, this is what we wanted; you can’t have a fight against a phantom.
Labour was doing well in the polls simply because no position against the government had been articulate, but they have come out now, its time to destroy them.
We can take him down he is a delusional fat bully, no stamina, no style, and no rhythm. Not even a killer punch.
tb
January 20th, 2011 9:20pm Report this commentLoath? The guys a plank.
It's a shame that the media enables him.
Fred Taylor
January 20th, 2011 9:43pm Report this commentBalls may be ball-and-chained by a lousy track record but he's tough and clever. Fraser is right. Treasury questions just got a lot more interesting. And not in a good way for the Chancellor.
Fatbloke on tour
January 20th, 2011 10:17pm Report this commentTrevor
Once again you open your mouth and let your belly rumble. Once again you try and talk economics and all you succeed in doing is exposing your own ignorance of the subject matter to hand.
The Credit Crunch had nothing to do with an asset bubble in the UK.
The Credit Crunch was caused by the desperation of the Dubya clan in the US desperate to go into the 2004 election with economic growth despite the fact that the real productive US economy had tanked after the Dot com bubble and the economic shocks surounding 9-11.
They had a choice, a long hard slog like BC in his first term or create bricks without straw using cheap money.
No surprises on the route they chose.
Run a huge dose of house price inflation in a country with cheap land and no history of fetshising house prices and any bubble was sure to get out of hand.
And so it did with the coin clippers of Wall Street working overtime to squeeze every last drop of bonus out of the poor and the desperate. Even better at a time when the US was sucking in imports from all across the globe, pay for all those consumer goods with a trade in "asset" grade bonds based on mortgages to the financially lost, the economically marginal and the bewildered.
So no more of the culpability of a UK "asset bubble", no mre about how EB / GB were responsible for the Credit Crunch, put the blame where it belongs the greed of the US bankers and the stupidity of the UK bankers who were running a large swathe of the economy with no understanding of economics or finance apart from a hope that the wholesale money tree would keep on delivering.
Consequently keep on havering, keep on with the wishful thinking, kep on with the politically partisan tripe because if you keep on imbibing your own liquid waste reality will hit you all the harder.
canonalberic
January 20th, 2011 10:52pm Report this commentShadow Chancellor. Very tricky position for someone from the ancien regime at the start of a new parliament.
Remind me - who was the brilliant Balliol bruiser who savagely shadowed Geoffrey Howe - before being replaced by a man who made Alan Johnson look like Maynard Keynes?
Although one rather thinks, in the long run, the dead sheep will be Mr Ed.....
Andy H
January 20th, 2011 11:36pm Report this commentHey Fatbloke.
As deluded as ever. I guess the medication is to blame? I suggest counselling may help..
David Ossitt
January 20th, 2011 11:59pm Report this commentNick
“Should have made Yvette Cooper Shadow Chancellor.
She understands economics, is good on TV and people like her.”
Get this straight the word is ‘loath’ her.
eyesee
January 21st, 2011 12:24am Report this commentIt's all right, you can put 'brilliance' back in it's box. Balls isn't brilliant with numbers he is a liar. Just like all the other limp-brains in New Labour he is self-impressed but forgot to acquire the reason. Look at the 'Shadow Cabinet', a group of mindless automatons stumbling about, always looking confused. They have the substance, charisma and independent competence of a shadow. Balls of course did use his financial brilliance to tell the taxman one thing and the fees office another about which was his main residence. Something for which those outside this protected class would find themselves on the wrong end of a prosecution. Did I say brilliance? It was of course, just lies.
fitalass
January 21st, 2011 3:33am Report this commentHave copied this post, just in case it gets lost in the post...
Well Fraser, as usual, you have nailed your political predictions to the mast, and that means you will continue to underestimate George Osborne while overestimating Ed Balls when it comes to mixing economics with politics. Don't give up the day job, Oops.
Sir Everard Digby
January 21st, 2011 7:27am Report this commentFatBloke,
I am all for a reasoned argument. However,I don't think you can claim with any credible justification that our current economic position had absolutely nothing to do with the previous government. Do explain where the legislative environment was so lax that the toxic securitisation packages were developed and approved which caused the global problem? I think you will find that was in the UK,not the US.
Who drafted that 'light touch'legislation?
It is therefore reasonable to argue that Balls is more to blame,not less. Despite this, the Labour Party want him to lead on matters financial....shameful.
Perhaps a case of 'In regione caecorum rex est luscus.'
GDT
January 21st, 2011 8:55am Report this commentSir Everard,
you waste your breathe with FBoT. He is a troll. He has a single line of comment which he sticks to. Very Brownesque in his approach. Nothing was the fault of the guys running the country - it all started in the City and the US don't you know! [Oh and don't forget Thatcher supposedly she had a part to play in it all]
The Laughing Cavalier
January 21st, 2011 9:26am Report this commentAs you rightly say he "bears more responsibility for anyone else - other than Brown - for the asset bubble and the consequent crash". Recently we learned that spending at the dept. of Education was out of control. There is no evidence to support the oft rumoured and much vaunted intelligence of this smirking egotist. It is nothing more than spin promulgated by the man himself and his cronies. Everything he touches turns to dross and illustrates a complete lack of judgement.
Isolde
January 22nd, 2011 1:52pm Report this comment@ Nick 'Yvette Cooper good on TV..' I hope you're joking. She remains, along with her repulsive husband, one of the most irritating politicians ever to have graced our screens. She talks with that patronising head girl tone of voice and obviously isn't that good at economics-she advocates the dire policies of her odious husband. Who again got us into this mess?
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