What Balls said and what he meant to say

According to Nick Robinson,this is what Ed Balls meant to say at the weekend.

"We meet in unprecedented times. With the world financial system in a crisis more severe than anything we have seen since the 1930s ...Triggering the biggest global recession in our lifetimes."

He was according to Nick

not arguing that the recession here - or, indeed in the US - will be worse than the the era of the soup kitchens in the 1930s.

but that

he was reflecting on the recent collapse in Asia's economy. Japan recently reported that its industrial output had fallen by almost 10% in December alone

Gordon Brown has been quick to step in and support his mate.At the morning briefing a Downing street spokesman said that

What he (Mr Balls) was saying was, first, the unprecedented global nature of this crisis and the fact it is effecting every country in the world, plus the speed with which it affected countries.

Danny Finkelstein though makes an interesting point about the severity of the recession

The richer we are, the better the living standards of the unemployed and the more money we are able to spend on welfare services even in a recession. The absolute living standards of those damaged by this recession are incomparably better than those in the 1930s

.

Whatever the outcome of the recession it now seems inevitable that it will result in some dramatic changes to the landscape both political and economic