So about a month after “In the Black Labour” plea for fiscal conservatism was published, we have this.

Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, has moved to challenge accusations that Labour is not credible on the economy by telling the public sector unions that he endorses George Osborne’s public sector pay freeze until the end of the parliament, and that he accepts every spending cut being imposed by the Conservatives.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/13/ed-balls-labour-party-economic-redibility

I actually think this is the right and inevitable step from Labour. Up until now they have basically been spending their time arguing with the public, telling them they were wrong to reject them at the election. Is a long way back for them on the economy but sanity strikes at last.

Yes but for the odious git that is Mr Balls, its a u turn that has no credibility coming from his beady eyed chubby face.
The man takes scheming and manipulation to a new and brutal level. Labour need to ditch him and bring forward a new tranch of leaders. Hillary Benn and Darling would be a start, I trust both of them to deliver a credible alternative to the other two parties.

That man truly is a turd wrapped in a shit.

The only reason I can possibly think of for stopping stomping on Ed’s Balls once I’d started would be to change my boots when they wore out.

He’s like a Spitting Image politician brought to life, the self-serving toss-pot. I think the next time we have party political broadcasts showing, whoever’s not Labour should just team up and spend a few bob on a 5 minute reel of his slimy policy flip-flopping.

TFO, I’ll happily cover for you at the changeover point. Take as long as you like…….

Ed Balls is the reason I stand full square in support behind Ed Milliband as leader of the Labour Party….

Whatever wafer-thin difference may have existed between Labour and the Tories has now gone.

Part of the function of the official opposition is to hold the government to account. Identikit parties, no opposition – what a fine politics we have in this country.

Look at the comments below the line. The Labour left is going mental on twitter.

At least he’s doing it now. If we assume that by the time of the next election Scotland will have voted for Devo Max there are going to be less Scottish Labour MPs at Westminster, either through further boundary changes or because they get smoked by the SNP. Those that are there will be unable to vote on matters exclusively English so Labour are going to have to compete in the South. That means fiscal conservatism.

Oh happy day.

Eton Mafia all bat for the same self serving team shocker..!!

Proles are surprised…

Vive la revolution..!!!

Did Ed Balls go to Eton? George Orwell did too, good school.

Did Ed Balls go to Eton..?

that’s immaterial.. he works for the Eton Mafia now.. It may well be a good school but it’s also the thriving criminal syndicate that conducts is business very successfully under the flimsy guise of governing Great Britain..

any fool know that.. they even teach it in state schools too these days

Oh yunki you need to get away from the internet. Go for a walk, it’s a lovely day.

Interesting that there is not a single person sticking up for the PFI idiot that is Ed Balls.

Oh yunki blah blah blah

Fair enough.. I think that much is true of everyone..

some people enjoy watching the politics and some enjoy coronation street.. it all depends which way you like to think your bread is buttered..

I was just saying like..

after all, it’s a forum.. for the sharing of opinions.. My view is as valid as yours sonny jim..

I didn’t mean to offend anyone

Send him into a primary school he may be a bruiser in the cut and thrust of politics (yes, quiet at the back) but a pack of 10 year olds will rip him apart based purely on his surname.

What is the idiot thinking?

“Where do we get a lot of support? Public sector. The tories a really upsetting the public sector, which can only be good for anyone seen to be not publicly supporting the tories. Hooray, so now all i have to do is……….Oh bugger”.

I heard a union leader say on Radio Four this morning that if ‘labour’ were too timid to oppose the cuts and didn’t want to be the opposition that the union movement would have to look elsewhere… well it’s taken them long enough to realise…

History shows that a timid Labour/TU movement that is a pale imitation of the Tories will remain a weak opposition.

History shows that a timid Labour/TU movement that is a pale imitation of the Tories will remain a weak opposition.

I have often heard Tony Blair and New Labour described exactly thus. That pale imitation won three General Elections at a canter and might have won a fourth.

Pop quiz. Who was the last Labour leader to win a general election who wasnt Tony Blair?

a pack of 10 year olds will rip him apart based purely on his surname.

They could rip him apart on economic policy as well:

“Mummy told me that you mustn’t spend more pocket money than you have. And she says that you are a vile shitweasel”.

for info technically a u turn does require some sort of policy

“We wouldn’t Do That” is not a policy

The man is an idiot. He is so scared of the tory press that he is adopting a stupid position to appease them.

That man truly is a turd wrapped in a shit.

A pretty accurate description of most politicians IMO.

Perhaps Balls has just realised the Tories are right on the pay freeze. Being is opposition doesn’t mean you oppose every govt policy right or wrong.

But irc, the point is if you have a strong voting base in the affected groups you don’t publicly agree with the policy which negatively affects them.

Its not even the right thing to do – as can be seen from the fact our economy is heading down the pan since the torys started making cuts compared to other economies.

He is just a big feartie

Listening to him on BBC R4 this morning, I’m not actually sure what has changed. On the one hand he says he won’t be able to say he will reverse any of the cuts, and then in the next breath says 20% cuts in the Police budget are too much, Labour would cut 12%.

TandemJeremy – Member
The man is an idiot. He is so scared of the tory press that he is adopting a stupid position to appease them.

Oh Jeremy, here we go again. Tory press, public deluded, can’t see the truth…..The public are in a totally different place on this, everyone understands that what goes out cant be more than what comes in.

why did anyone expect the labour party to radically oppose anything that the tories propose ?

do people still think they’re a socialist party or something ?

they’re just another buttock of the same neo-liberal arsehole and the sooner that the so called opposition to tory rule within the electorate accept that, the sooner we might see some real change.

mcboo-its still a correct analysis no matter how yo wish it wern’t. but you do not have to make such damaging cuts. raise taxes to the level of france/ germany and so on and no need to cut.

5% of the population control 40% of the wealth – take a bit of that off them?

Cameron is has 30 million, Osbourne got 3 million as his 21st birthday pressie.

We have a press that relentlessly pumps out neocon propaganda – of course it affects public opinion. Taking money out of the economy is destroying the economy with growth falling.

We have a press that relentlessly pumps out neocon propaganda

i agree

destroying the economy with growth falling

and you’ve swallowed it.

why is economic growth the be all and end all of achievement, unless of course that you share the same neo liberal worldview ?

Really……what are the top rates of tax in France and Germany?

We’ve tried socialism red in tooth and claw in the 1970s. By all means stand on that economic plan, see how many votes you get south of Liverpool.

“Its not even the right thing to do – as can be seen from the fact our economy is heading down the pan since the torys started making cuts compared to other economies.”

I see the UK wasn’t one of the 9 European countries that had their credit rating cut. So maybe they are doing something right.

Actually the Tories haven’t cut overall govt spending so far anyway.

Govt spending 2009-2010 669bn

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/18/government-spending-department-2009-10

Govt spending 2010-2011 691bn – Up 0.3% allowing for inflation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/oct/26/government-spending-department-2010-11

Pop quiz. Who was the last Labour leader to win a general election who wasnt Tony Blair?

With the emphasis on the word ‘win’ -Harold Wilson, 1966.

Who was the last conservative leader to win a general election?

germany tax as a % of GDP 39.5 excludes most healthcare
UK 37.% includes most healthcare.

healthcare is around 12% of gdp in total

Germany is taxed significantly higher, has not had the austerity cuts to the same extent and is outperforming us – its economy has got better over the last year, ours has got worse.

We’ve tried socialism red in tooth and claw in the 1970s.

No we din’t. What an ignorant, blinkered thing to say. The closest we’ve ever come to Socialism in the UK was in the post-war period when the NHS was formed and many industries were nationalised. Which led to a period of great prosperity and economic stability for Great Britain. Which came to an end when British politics were dragged to the right be the US’s increasing paranoia towards anything ‘socialist’, and a global recession marked by stuff like the oil crisis and the fact that the UK had simply run out of steam as a global superpower, Empire had crumbled, and other nations saw rapid economic expansion. We’ve never had proper Socialism in the UK. Britain has always bin a relatively right-wing, conservative nation.

Now, the Tories seem bent on dragging Britain back into the 19th century. I woon’t worry what Ed Balls is doing, not when there’s scum like Osborne, Cameron and Andrew Lansley as the figureheads for the real string-pullers…

yunki +1
I agree that its a discrace that there is no choice in a so-called democracy, with a political system designed to protect the status quo, and governing parties (the previous one included) with private debts to sponsor corporations that they put above the welfare of their citizens.

Would anyone on here vote Labour for any other reason than to stop the Tories.
I really think they need some new people. I have never met any of them but they just look like want their mummies all the time.

Zippykona +1
Also, would anyone vote Liberal Democrat now?

We have a lib Dem mp and I would vote for him. He’s a nice bloke and has personally intervened when a friend was in trouble.
I would vote for the person rather than his party.
PS he did get in trouble for slagging off Cameron.
PPS he has a bike.

Would anyone on here vote Labour for any other reason than to stop the Tories.

Having a Tory MP elected in Tower Hamlets would spell the beginning of the Apocalypse. Fortunately, many Londoners aren’t as blinkered as many of those who live in other parts of the UK, and can see through Tory ideology of ‘serve the wealthy at the expense of everyone else’, so you get even quite affleunt people voting Labour. This is most probably because they actually have to live close to those who suffer deprivation, and can see clearly just how Tory policies would really screw things up for everyone.

There is no real viable ‘Left’ alternative to the Tories now though, leaving a vacuum waiting to be filled.

Step forward Red Ken….

Only slightly topical but when Portillo was an mp he was the anti Christ.
Watching the train programme he seems ok.

TandemJeremy – Member
mcboo-its still a correct analysis no matter how yo wish it wern’t.

TJ – its amazing isn’t it? Where do we go from here. The correct analysis is so obvious isn’t it and you have laid it out so clearly. Why is everyone ignoring it? What are they missing?

UK – neither the Tories, the LD, nor the Labour party understand economics (aren’t they all just neoecon free-marketeers with no respect to the superior model of the state?). Its so confusing, those Labour people claiming that the Tories were cutting too far, too fast. The Tories not even starting austerity. The Lib Dems changing their minds with the wind. Oh, and now the Labour party saying that the Tories aren’t cutting enough. What a bunch hey? They can solve tax in an instant – positive and negative – its glorious equality and harmonious society. Better still we can integrate with Europe and have a nice, strong currency. That will do our industry a world of good, won’t it? And yet they don’t get it.

Why, oh why, cant we be like those nice Germans. Look at their strong banks like Commerzbank. Why is it so hard to simply copy their success. They are such good europeans looking after their friends. Give them a lovely strong currency, lend them loads of money and sell them lots of BMW and Audi’s (I wonder if they do any mtb or work in IT. Guess Canyon have got that sorted out?). And then tell them that is all their fault after all. Even play a role in education. Such nice friends. Who needs enemies?

When the Germans are such good europeans why are those strange people at the Guardian writing yesterday that ‘The GB economy is still benefitting from strong export growth to EU [how very dare we?] and its weakness is actually drag on European growth. Its all our fault again, and yet nobody, repeat nobody gets it.

And lets not get started on The Establishment hey? The RW press, bloody Ed Balls (ex Tory student, now masquerading as a socialist (sic)), all those Eton boys. Did you know, your don’t even have to be clever to go there, you just have to be rich. Bloody scandal and look at them all running (or not) our beloved country -well not yours obviously, you guys are too sensible. And the BBC – gov, RW apologists. Make FOX News look LW.

Its so hard when you are so right, not to get upset that so many, many people really don’t get it. Still who needs money? That wealthy rich elite with their £41k can keep it. True wealth is having all those things that money cant buy. Oh and we have no money as a nation because its all flawed….so UTOPIA, sorted!