From The Telegraph, minutes ago: Alan Johnson is stepping down as Shadow Chancellor. Ed Balls replaces hi, Yvette Cooper goes to Home Affairs and Douglas Alexander to the Foreign Office brief.
Yes!
Now we have a team with ability and fight in it.
It's time to unleash Ed Balls. Let the counter attack really begin!
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If he was right to keep Balls away from the Treasury before, then why is he now right to put him there? The arguments that applied before still apply, and no one will have any sympathy for Balls when Cameron and Osbourne attack him.
Ed Balls is a clever chap, and a shrewd political operator. Wonder how long it will take him to oust Milliband now?
Agree it’s good news – I voted or Balls as leader, and he has the economic qualifications to meet the current political situation.
It is also good for Ed Miliband. He used Johnson to draw the sting from the Blairites. Now he has gone, but the Blairites have no beef…..
Terrible choice for Labour. Balls may win arguments, but people don’t like him. It makes Labour look like they are in denial, and people don’t like husband and wife teams in politics: it makes them look too ambitious.
The smart choice would have been Andy Burnham, who struck me during the leadership campaign as being able to strike a common chord. But as alastair intimates, was this choice Miliband’s or was it no choice at all?
Too true Braveheart!
Is this the same Ed Balls on whose watch the banks collapsed and the country lost its shirt? Please stop this Labour love-in or face Labour being in permanent opposition.
@Stephen Griffiths
Let’s be clear – but for Labour’s prompt action the world’s banks might have all failed
And with it the entire food supply chain
And we would have faced the break down in society
Labour’s quick action – in leading the world – saved us from that
The people for a crisis not of their making, I’d say
It is interesting to see that speculation is already entering the mainstream that the reason for AJ leaving is not “the bodyguard story” as reported and that people from Ed Balls team were briefing the Sunday Times about another personal matter concerning AJ.
That is why Ed Balls is a terrible appointment. Not because he isn’t intelligent or can’t do the job, but because people don’t like him as a person and what’s more (this is the biggie), don’t trust him. He was there in he bunker when Damian McBride was sending out lies: he is seen as someone with no moral compass, just the certainty that he is right and that the ends justify whatever means he uses.
With Yvette Cooper in the Home Office, the big theme for the (Murdoch) press in the coming years will be of how Labour are divided and their leader undermined.
Politics isn’t just about policies, it’s also about people.
@mad foetus
a) People don’t trust politicians
b) What do you want – a bunch of virgins to form the next government?
c) People will; prefer Balls to Cameron, Osborne and Clegg when they wrecked the economy – and they’ll seek competence and a man with the courage to say people who come first
d) The country is already moving heavily against neoliberalism and all it stands for
So Balls is not popular – he’s also not leader
He’s there to do a job
And I suspect he’ll be very, very good at it
And people like you won’t matter a) because you can’t vote b) because you wouldn’t vote for him anyway c) your self interest will be seen through
This is – I repeat – great news for the UK at this point of time
And if Labour had been less in love with the banks in the first place (of which Balls was very much a part of) they wouldn’t have had to do any rescuing in the first place.
It will be intersting to see what happens when Balls decides he wants Ed’s job.
Richard,
The crux of it is the first point: people don’t trust politicians.
What I find astonishing in this day and age is that while the population – on average – gets older, our politicians get younger. And the younger ones seem to have less and less real life experience before getting into politics. I know Balls worked on the FT for a while, but didn’t he go into Westminster young? And what has Osbourne done ever than a bit of holiday work at the family business?
So, Balls and Cooper, the Milibands, Osbourne, Cameron, Hague and Clegg (just for starters). All people with next to no experience of work other than being paid by political parties. It’s just depressing. When are we ever going to get any vision in politics when power is reserved to those who never question or change their beliefs?
Oh, and Richard: on the only occasion I did vote in a UK election I voted tactically to get rid of the Tories. The sad truth is that for a long time there have only been two occasions – 1992 and 2001 – when I wouldn’t have voted for change. My general view is that the UK govenment is usually rubbish, though in 1992 and 2001 the opposition were clearly unelectable.
@Greg
How utterly ludicrous
If your thesis is right then the failure of most banks in the USA, banks in Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and elsewhere will all the fault of just Gordon Brown, may be assisted by Ed Balls
Frankly it takes an extremely warped mind to believe that
The reality is that neoliberal economics has dominated for 30 years. Yes, Brown and Balls were guilty of accepting too much of its prescription. But they stood out against the demands from the conservative opposition from much much less regulation of the UK financial services sector – appointed Osborne likes to forget – but remember he was the person who praised Ireland to the hilt in 2006, and look what an error of judgement that was
So of course Balls is guilty of past errors of judgement – but then, so am I and no doubt so are you. But as I’ve said above, unless you want political virgins to run the country, or people who’ve never made a mistake (who by definition are people who have therefore never done anything) of course people with a track record of some error will assume high office of state. So what? The real issue is that we want people who have the stature to recognise their past error – and Balls is already doing that – who can learn from it and then promote policy that ensures we do not fall into the same mistakes again.
Osborne is repeating, exacerbating, and deliberately promoting a repeat of the failings of neoliberal economics
Balls has made it clear he will oppose him. Thank goodness for that
@mad foetus
What are you saying? You would like me to stand for Parliament? the