Osborne bests the Man With A Past

Balls is a bit like a vampire – he has bite, but he works best in the darkness. In the House of Commons, with those lights shining on him, his powers drain. George Osborne had the better of him in their brief exchanges at Treasury Questions. Balls led on the snow joke. But Osborne had pre-empted that earlier, when he first stood up. Balls teased him about going to Klosters in the winter, but these things only work in newspapers where you can run a picture of Osborne in ski gear. It leaves the House cold.
 
The key Osborne line was that Balls is “the man with a past” – and how. It was said with just the right touch of menace. And he had a fairly decent gag: that Eds Miliband and Balls both “know what’s it’s like to be people’s second choice.” Balls significantly dropped the double-dip talk, and spoke of growth over winter grinding to a halt. The ONS claims Q4 GDP went into reverse, but even Balls – now – seems not to believe this. His main point, instead, was that Osborne will have to “stand here, at the Budget in 6 weeks time, and downgrade his first growth forecasts.” His contention, presumably, is that the bad Q4 will likely reduce 2010 growth figures. Balls and Brown were able to concoct growth estimates: Osborne takes his from his new quango, the so-called Office for Budget Responsibility.
 
The Labour benches have no love for Balls, and he received little support from them today (Osborne had the Tory MPs roaring their approval). It’s a reminder that Balls is a former SpAd, and then a hit man who specialised in taking out Blairites, parachuted into a safe seat in 2005 (where the all-women shortlists were suspended) and rushed into the Cabinet. The Labour MPs know that he’s not one of them. He has not spent much time in the Commons, and that showed today.
 
Does it matter ff Osborne bested him? Not really. Hague bested Blair every week, and precious good it did him on election day. The battle that matters is the media battle, where Balls will wage his guerrilla warfare. He has the edge in this arena. But across the dispatch box, he’s no great shakes.