Balls predicts a rocky autumn for Labour
Peter Hoskin 8:59am
Steve Richards has landed an interview with Ed Balls in today's Independent. The schools secretary discusses the Sats fiasco, but it's the same old story – he declines to apologise, and frequently deploys the phrase “arm's length”. But he's a bit more revealing when it comes to the subject of where it's gone wrong for Gordon Brown this year, and what Labour's prospects are for the future. Here are some key quotes:
"The 10p tax was a mistake. Other things have not gone right, sometimes through no fault of our own, sometimes because of ministerial decisions......It's going to get tougher before it gets easier. Higher gas and electricity bills will have an impact through the autumn and as you get closer to the winter this will become more of an issue ... The question is how that whole process will be managed from the fiscal side, what happens to utility bills, the state of the financial markets...
...I don't think anyone believes a change of leader would do any good at all ... Gordon has the experience, policy and vision."
I suspect Balls is right to predict that gas and electricity bills will become an even bigger issue later this year. The key question is who will carry the can for it – the Government or the utility companies. We've already seen a bout of furious buck-passing between the two sides, and can expect many more to come. But with Brown and Darling's economic credibility as it is, I wouldn't bet against the utility companies coming out on top.
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Marcus Cotswell
July 23rd, 2008 9:18am Report this commentIt will be the regulator, Ofgem, that gets it in the neck for rising utility bills. Not fair, but that's what independent regulators are for. There'll be more muttering about "arm's length" there, too.
Bruce. UK
July 23rd, 2008 9:22am Report this commentSo what?
"sometimes through no fault of our own"
Name a few, or even one.
John
July 23rd, 2008 9:42am Report this commentNo! Really! A rocky autumn (why on earth is it capitalised?) for ZanuLab? Well, I never! This nice, honest, competent band of dedicated public servants does not deserve to have a rocky autumn.
No, these utterly useless and incompetent crooks, liars and thieves deserve to be taken out and strung up.
Labour Member
July 23rd, 2008 9:43am Report this commentI don't think anyone believes a change of leader would do any good at all
Well he's wrong about that. Gordon is a decent man but he's out of his depth as PM. he has to go because no man is bigger than the party.
David C
July 23rd, 2008 10:23am Report this commentWhy?
Why does 'Gordon have the experience, policy and vision'
All the evidence points in exactly the opposite direction.
His policies and absence of vision have placed the country in its present position: lacking the wherewithall to ride out the financial storm without huge suffering both now and in the future.
As for experience, Brown's boastful and endlessly repeated statement of 'No More Boom and Bust' demonstrates he is no more qualified than any other member of a failed Labour Government.
As for the '10p Tax' disaster, I will repeat myself.
This was no mistake.
It was part of the lead-in to an Autumn General Election. A political manouvre to help secure middle-class votes.
A cynical ploy from a cynical and manipulative man.
Pete Hoskin
July 23rd, 2008 10:48am Report this commentJohn: thanks for spotting that mistake. Autumn's my favourite season, so I guess I was being a bit too deferential towards it! Corrected now.
Travis Bickle
July 23rd, 2008 1:25pm Report this commentAs far as Labour is concerned perhaps we should refer to the season by it's American name, the fall ?
John
July 23rd, 2008 1:56pm Report this commentIt's mine too, Pete!
Labour member (are there such animals still? Good grief!): please name one senior ZanuLab apparatchik with the necessary experience, skills, brain, competence, basic integrity and dedication to the interests of the country, who would make a better PM.
Skills in lying, stealing, lining one's own pockets and disclaiming responsibility for one's mega-cockups do NOT count.
John
July 23rd, 2008 1:58pm Report this commentYes, David C, it was cynical: but it was still a disaster, and could easily have been predicted to be one by anybody with two brain cells to rub together, since it has made McLiar look even more useless than before.
Liz Brown
July 23rd, 2008 1:59pm Report this commentA nice one from "so what ballsuparmslength" so he wasn't Heathcliffe's very special adviser, bag carrier and arse licker in chief during that bastard's turn at the Treasury helm then. Now he has suddenly acquired a crystal ball and tells us what is blindingly obvious to even those of the meanest intellect (thanks to this lots education cock up, that is now an awful lot of people) he needs to be smacked around the face with the dead cod he increasingly resembles
Chuck Unsworth
July 23rd, 2008 2:03pm Report this commentBalls, like Major King Kong in 'Dr Strangelove', clinging on to the nuclear device as he (and NuLab) rides through the stratosphere to certain and permanent destruction.
And there are many similarities today with other characters in Kubric's movie.
Ian C
July 23rd, 2008 3:37pm Report this commentAutumn is the deadline fro Brown. If he does not go quietly he will lose a confide3nce vote at some stage and be thrown out - per Labour Member's discreet advice above.
Tony
July 23rd, 2008 9:41pm Report this commentGordon is a decent man; yeah, right. He is a shitty little liar, but a decent man. Thanks for making that clear.
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