Target Ed Balls

There is quite an interesting piece in the Independent this mroning that suggests that Ed Balls may be heading towards a Portillo moment.

Andy McSmith reports from the Children's secretaries constituency battleground where Tory Antony Calvert thinks he can pull off a similar shock this year, by defeating Ed Balls, the man Gordon Brown would most like to see as his successor.

The idea of targeting the Education Secretary began as a gimmick. Mr Calvert's campaign was not attracting any money, because Morley and Outwood looked like a hopeless prospect for the Conservatives, so he turned up at the party conference last October to hand out calling cards with the slogan "Get Balls out for a Tenner." Underneath were the words: "We apologise for the bare-faced cheek in asking like this, but there will never be a better time to beat Balls."