Good old Ed Balls. He has just given a lobby briefing attacking Tory education plans – at least that was his plan. But he ended up speaking about everything under the sun – Cherie’s pregnancy, the wickedness of Frank Field, the hopelessness of Crewe, the errors of the 10p Budget, why Labour is “behind the curve” on family finances. He walked into bear trap after bear trap. The lobby loved it, unable to believe their luck. All of this eclipsed his orginal attack message.
As CoffeeHousers know, I’m keen on education so I, at least, wanted to know how Balls would attack the Tory policy. He suggested teachers would get sacked in unpopular schools (no, Ed, more schools do not lead to fewer teachers), and asked who will pay for the 220,000 “additional” places the Tories envisage. They got this bit wrong. The figure is not “additional” spending, but reallocated. Money would come out of “building schools for the future” fund. Yes, and used to build other schools – as chosen by parents rather than bureaucrats. Local authorities would not have control, he said, as if this was a self-evident outrage.
The lack of ammo in his attack rather underscored the strength of what Gove and Policy Exchange have produced. If Balls wants to take the fight to the Tories fair enough, but why start on the only policy area where they have a radical, thought-through and coherent plan?
The whole act – three ministers (Adonis and Jim knight) giving up their afternoon to attack a Tory policy – struck the lobby as strange. Some remarked that it looked like a sign of panic. Balls was asked why he was now producing the type of attack document one sees at elections. One journalist said all secondary schools in his borough (Greenwich) are “rubbish”: what’s the problem with someone setting up a new one? When challenged if his schools were that bad, he said 60% of parents send kids to schools outside the borough. Adonis promised two City Academies.
But this was before Balls starting speaking so freely on other topics. It was as if he were still a special adviser, briefing off the record. But here was a Cabinet member, stoking every controversy going. The only problem journalists had after was which line to go on. It was great stuff. Balls is an undeniably smart guy, but this may be the problem: he can’t resist answering questions to which he knows the answer. At the end, he thanked us for coming. “Come back soon” someone replied to him. After tomorrow’s press, I don’t think he will be. More’s the pity.
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