Thursday, June 07, 2007

Ed Balls: You're Either For Us Or Against Us

A further sign of how the Great Clunking Fist intends to operate came from his lackey right hand man Ed Balls today during the closing stages of the Finance Bill Committee Stage. He worked himself up to a terrible frenzy and blurted out the following...
The Society of Trust & Estate Practioners have a choice. They can either
talk to Ministers or they can talk to the Opposition. They cannot do both.

I think that in a parliamentary democracy Mr Balls will find that it is both possible and desirable to do both. Is this a further indication of what like will be like in a Brown government?

Ed Balls is developing a real reputation on both sides of the House as an accident waiting to happen. His performances on the media and in the Commons are generally of a lamentable standard. Let's hope that his sponsor doesn't give him the British economy to play with.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although he ain't as bad as his missus, Yvette Cooper.

I wonder what they talk about over the marmalade and toast of a morn ?

Anonymous said...

Poor Ed's just not up to it. It would be kinder of Gordon not to over promote him.

Anonymous said...

Gordon and his broonies seem to have a strange idea of democracy and openness.

Anonymous said...

They'll probably give him DEFRA. That department has an honourable tradition of being led by Grade-A F*ck-Ups.

Unsworth said...

Balls has reached beyond the outer limits of his capabilities. Simply, the boy's not up to it. Nor is his lovely consort. Neither of them has any real competence at all.

Anonymous said...

He may be GB's lackey but he is an absolute disaster in the House and on TV.Keep him there!

Anonymous said...

Balls has always struck me as one of those people who's probably really good at doing paperwork and adding numbers together, but who lacks the social graces to be a proper politician. His delivery of everything, even during interviews, is either horridly patronising or rudely snappy.

Newmania said...

Whats happened with the boudary commsion thing surrounding he and she Balls .The idea was to hold it up until after an election wasnt` it but I may be out of date

Anonymous said...

A Labour MP has given up his seat (in return for a cushy job) Newmania, so Balls can take it. I forget which but I'm sure someone will remember.

Balls is a fantastic asset to the Tories. He's not grown up from sixth form debating. He always reminds me of Piers from the New Statesman.

Anonymous said...

Though one has no evidence for it he has always struck one as a man with a rather lower boiling point than most of us and if goaded frequently enough and nicely enough, he will one day have a red mist moment.

That delightful word 'lickspittle' must have been coined with him in mind.

For some reason to do with the convoluted workings of a sociopathic mind, Stalin loves him dearly and will almost certainly give him a job he is incapable of doing properly which may be when he can be pumped into a moment of glorious loss of cool.

He has all the warmth of Tom Courtenay's Strelnikov in Dr Zhivago.

Anonymous said...

What is the betting on there being a 'night of the long knives' following Blair's departure, followed by a 'scorched earth policy' to erase much of the traces of the Blair 'legacy'.

Let the mayhem begin...

Savonarola said...

Mr Balls is a teste (sic) character
whose loyalty to his paymaster (Brown's £100K bung to him via Smith Institute) precludes him forming his own objective position on important financial and economic issues. Like Brown he does not know how to wield the mechanisms of power to achieve positive results. "My wish is your command". A detestable idealogue.

Anonymous said...

Ed Balls is developing a real reputation on both sides of the House as an accident waiting to happen.

You would think that Geoff Hoon and Ken clarke would take him aside, suspend him by the old school tie, and kneww him in the crotch to get him to think more carefully about dissing people

Anonymous said...

'scorched earth policy' to erase much of the traces of the Blair 'legacy'.

poor Carole Caplin.......

Anonymous said...

True he is gaffe-prone. But he is also widely recognised as sharing a large part of the credit for a decade of economic prosperity. Surely, competence should be valued over grace? Or have the Blair years really affected our value systems that much?

Anonymous said...

Well, it's certainly been a decade of economic prosperity for MPs, Sir Ronnie Cohen and venture capitalists in the PFI business.

Perhaps it's just been a weeny bit worse for all sorts of pensioners, people suffering swingeing tax increases, anyone caught up in the Tax Credits fiasco, junior doctors, farmers .....

Anonymous said...

>I think that in a parliamentary democracy Mr Balls will find that it is both possible and desirable to do both.

If only someone would apply that to the Trades Unions' political funds, then we might get somewhere.

>You would think that Geoff Hoon and Ken clarke would take him aside, suspend him by the old school tie,

Ed Davey more like - the year below him at Nottingham High.

Matt

John Hemming said...

I was quite surprised by this. It is quite anti-democratic and he didn't properly row back.

Inamicus said...

Though I am no fan of the Government, I feel Yvette Cooper deserves defending. She is very able and knowledgeable but is hamstrung by having to be a junior in a department headed first by Prescott and then by Kelly (who she loathes) and having to deal with a lot of fuck-ups bequeathed by them (HIPS for instance)

Anonymous said...

Broon's Goons.

First rule: Do not promote competitors; only promote subordinates.

The Pair of Balls will go far under the Great Sulking Git.*

*Bowdlerised for Iain.

Vlad the Impala said...

The greatest gift to the Tory Party since the cockail sausage.

Anonymous said...

inamicus [7.33 PM] The way to deal with inherited fuck-ups, such as HIPs, is to jettison them. Instead the fragrant Yvette threatened to resign unless they were implemented.

Perhaps she allowed her civil servants to lead her by the nose.

TaxCutter said...

Spot on Iain. There's actually sod all point in speaking to Ed Balls because if you follow the Finance Bill debate its clear that he knows nothing about the tax law he is seeking to enact. As shown when Mark Hoban ran rings around him.

Unknown said...

Balls is sure to get Chief Secretary to the Treasury in a Brown government. Brown will want to keep an eye on his chancellor and control the high spending departments.

Anonymous said...

Inamicus(7.33) shouldn't be so gullible in believing the "sources close to Yvette Cooper" (no doubt Balls and the lickspittles round him) who have been busy dumping on Ruth Kelly. Mrs Balls was the Minister responsible for Heaven's sake !

Yvette's stock isn't high in her department where she is widely seen as graceless, charmless and interested in only one thing: the ever-upward motion of Mr and Mrs Balls

Anonymous said...

But he is also widely recognised as sharing a large part of the credit for a decade of economic prosperity

The People of China are grateful to Ed Balls and his uncle Big Gordon for their achievement in building so many factories in The Workshop of the World......

Roman Abramovitch and Boris "Plat" Berezhovsky also thank Ed Balls and Big Gordon for helping them catch up on Bill Gates after New Labour reinvigorated the Russian Economy

The IMF praises Gordon Brown and Eddie Balls for reducing interest rates globally

Anonymous said...

Sorry Inamicus,but I have it on good authority that Yvette Cooper was far more to blame for the HIPs fiasco than any other minister.Everyone told her it was going to be a disaster but she would not listen and treated those involved with distain.