Ed Balls is a bonny fighter and even his opponents often appear to enjoy being wound-up by the Shadow Chancellor’s pleasingly-shameless* approach to opposition. There was a typical piece of Ballsian chicanery during this afternoon’s debate on the economy when Balls accused George Osborne of stubbornly sticking to a failed “Plan A” and, to buttress his argument, pointed out that the New York Times agrees that the coalition has failed to get Britain working again.
Well, if the New York Times says something it must be true! Or, you know, not. Though the Old Gray Lady is a mighty paper it is not the last word on anything, let alone the British economy. In any case, its hostility to Cameron and Osborne is best understood as a proxy for the American argument about fiscal policy, not as a serious critique of the British experience.
In debating circles, Balls would lose points for making an argument from authority that, on closer inspection, is not even actually an argument from authority.
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