Blue Glasman turns on Red Ed

One gets the impression that this is going to be a difficult year for the Labour leader Ed Miliband.

Already under pressure from unnamed members of his party over his performances against David Cameron and still struggling to define exactly what the party should be opposing and proposing,Maurice Glasman has taken to the pages of the New Statesman to air his concerns about t.he party's leader.

He writes that

Labour is apparently pursuing a sectional agenda based on the idea that disaffected Liberal Democrats and public-sector employees will give Labour a majority next time around

and goes on to critique what he sees as its Keynesian orthodoxy in denying that its spending policy in the latter years has not had some effect on the current state of affairs that the country finds itself in.

Some argue that his attack is not so much on Miliband but on the shadow chancellor Ed Balls.

Glasman sings praises for part of what Miliband is trying to do

He was right, too, to distinguish between predatory and productive capital. Finance capital, outside of all relationships and calling the shots, is by nature promiscuous and exploitative. We need to call time on its nasty ways.

he writes but then adds that

The problem with Brownite political economy is that, even though it was true that a 3 per cent deficit was not excessive in the context of economic growth, it was debt that was growing at the time, rather than the real economy. A vast, sustained expansion in private debt fuelled the financial sector throughout Brown's tenure as chancellor and then prime minister. There was not enough investment in the productive economy, not enough private-sector growth.

So maybe not the start to the New Year that both Eds had in mind but at least he has some supporters among the former grandees

As the Guardian reports

On Twitter, however, the former deputy prime minister John Prescott said: "Glasman. You know sod all about politics, economic policy, Labour or solidarity. Bugger off and go 'organise' some communities!"

Balls-Why I cry at the antiques roadshow

Labour's Shadow Chancellor has got all emotional.

In an interview with Total Politics magazine,previewed HERE,he tells them

"I cry at the Antiques Roadshow. You know, when someone comes in with some family heirloom and it’s often the last bit in the programme and the expert says, ‘Do you know how much this is worth? It’s valued at X thousand pounds.’ And they say, ‘I’m amazed it’s worth that much, but it means more to me than money.’ Incredibly emotional.”

Balls' hand signals flatlines Cameron

Having just watched today's Prime Minister's questions,I was rather baffled by the continued hand signals being given by the shadow chancellor Ed Balls throughout the performance.

It turns out that they were meant to signal flatliner,a reference to the lack of growth in the economy.

They certainly appeared to get under the skin of the Prime Minister who as questions came to an end said that Balls could go on "making your questionable salute".

And I thought he was practicing his umpiring skills
,

Tessa and Ed join the queue

The queue of Labour politicians wanting to aplogise for the last administration was joined by former Blairite Tessa Jowell this morning.

According to the Independent on Sunday,she puts the blame on last year's electoral defeat as

because it was addicted to the "crack cocaine" of courting media barons such as Rupert Murdoch rather than listening to the public's concerns.

The shadow Olympics minister warns that

"nobody is listening" to Labour because of a breakdown in trust with the public on the economy, its relations with the media, and a failure to talk about welfare and immigration. Voters can only hear "white noise", she says, and Labour must promise to open the "gilded cages" of the Westminster, media and City establishments.

She joins the party's policy chief, Liam Byrne, and former home secretary Alan Johnson in calling for Mr Miliband to apologise for Labour's mistakes on the economy.

Meanwhile Ed Balls is pouring his heart out to the Telegraph's Patrick Hennessey.

He tells the chief political correspondent that

"With Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling and Tony Blair, and many other people, I didn't see this financial regulation crisis coming. So I hold my hands up.

Interestingly or not he also reveals that his leadership ambitions have now vanished.

Should such a vacancy exist,he tells the paper, he would happily stand aside in favour of his wife Yvette, the shadow home secretary, if she wanted to got for it.

The Ed Balls library

Alex Barker has been noting the contents of Ed Balls' bookshely over at the FT's Westminster blog and says that

His office collection, for the most part, stands to his credit. There are a couple of odd choices (Gerald Ronson’s autobigraphy?). But the quality is generally high (particularly for an office) and there are no embarrassing texts on “Great Chancellors”. Indeed, I probably regard Balls more highly after having taken a peak into his library

Check out the full article to see what is on the shelves.But why Gerald Ronson's auto biography?

The former jailbird and property tycoon explains how “he fought his way to the top of the business ladder, lost everything twice, then clawed his way back up again”. Just what an education secretary needs.

Balls V Osborne

It is important that the political agenda attempts to get back onto serious issues and ones that are going to dominate next year's election.

The main one being the battle over spending and the fight was launched in the papers this morning.

In the blue corner,George Osborne who tells the Times that

The big discussion in British politics for the foreseeable future will be how to tackle the debt crisis and deliver quality public services when spending is tight,

Whilst in the Red Corner,the usurped Chancellor to be Ed Balls who tells the Guardian that whilst he is willing to invest in young people

the Tories are committed to cutting spending – not just in the future, but right now in the middle of a recession. Instead of investing so we can recover more quickly and more strongly, the Tories are ­ideologically wedded to cutting spending to fund tax cuts for the few.

Stop Balls says the FT

The voice of the business community seems to be backing Alistair Darling in more evidence that the community does not want Ed Balls as Chancellor.

In its editorial this morning the paper praises the Chancellor

Major reshuffles should be avoided; few portfolios benefit from inexperience at the helm. At this stage in the parliament, with only a year left until an election is required, the only reason to change ministers is if they lack the authority required to do their job. Jacqui Smith, the hapless home secretary, is rightly being replaced. But Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the exchequer, should stay.

and reminds us that

The UK was the first country in this crisis to recapitalise its banks. He pushed for a reasonable, but not excessive, dose of fiscal stimulus. Under his lead, the Treasury has become a more honest institution than it was under his predecessor, Mr Brown.

Government falling apart as the wheels come off

Jacqui Smith is rumoured to be leaving the cabinet.

Downing Street are calling it pure speculation but the BBC are saying that it has been confirmed by Westminster sources.

Did she jump or was she pushed?

Make no mistake this is a serious day for the Prime Minister.The home secretary is one of the grand offices of state and to be forced out either by the expenses scandal or maybe pure incompetence is a devastating blow.

On top of this three more Labour MP's have announced that they are stepping down.One David Chayter as a result of expenses,the others Beverley Hughes and Patricia Hewitt look like they are deserting a sinking ship.

It seems strange for both of these to announce their stepping down during this most difficult week for Labour.

Harriet Harman is currently on the World at One trying to plaster over the cracks and not doing a very good job.

Now it seems that the door is open for Ed Balls to get the keys to No 11 and Alistair Darling to go to the Home Office.

Brummer on why Balls should not be Chancellor

Alex Brummer writes in the Mail this morning on why Ed Balls will be a bad choice for Chancellor

When all was going swimmingly for Britain he took much of the credit and enjoyed being cast as a young pretender to future leadership of the Labour Party.
But as the gloss has come off Brown's economic stewardship with the onset of the credit crunch and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, many of the decisions taken by Brown, on the advice of Balls, have been exposed as serious errors.

For Alex his biggest failure was taking away the Bank of England from the regulation of the Banks which is widely seen as the part cause of the financial crisis as well as him playing a key role in

in the decision by Brown to raise £5billion of income used to fund youth unemployment by raiding defined salary pension schemes.

We are being distracted from the real issues

Employers are becoming alarmed that measures to fight the recession are being neglected as Westminster’s focus turns inwards.

writes Jean Eaglesham in the FT this morning.

It is a very important point and more so that it seems that our political leaders are more concerned with constitutional change than tackling the economy

Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have been forced to prioritise plans to overhaul the Commons and discipline errant MPs, forcing economic and public policy on to the backburner.

says the paper and perhaps more worryingly is that we may have a new Chancellor by the end of the week.

The papers are full of rumours that Ed Balls will take over from Alistair Darling who now finds himself embroiled in expenses controversy.

That would be a tragedy.Darling for me has done a good job despite extremely difficult times and his boss looking over his shoulder.

Balls lacks respect in the party and more importantly in the business community.To sacrifice his Chancellor for purely political motive would be a disastrous move by the Prime Minister

Balls hits back at Cameron's broken society claim

Children's secretary Ed Balls has responded to the latest attacks on broken Britain in a piece on Labour List today.

Refering to the Tory attacks following the Sun's revelation of the 13 year old father he says that

the idea that this tragic case means "Britain is broken" is absurd. As was David Cameron's shocking claim in a Sunday newspaper that the appalling way in which Karen Matthews locked-up and abused her daughter, Shannon, could well be repeated by the 5 million mothers who currently receive income-related benefits.

adding that

1 Iain Duncan-Smith's strategy simply ignores the facts. Over the last decade teenage pregnancy rates have fallen. So has child poverty. And thousands more young people are volunteering.

2.the Conservative Party consistently refuses to support our Children's Plan policies to tackle the causes of under-achievement, poverty or crime.

3.Tory policies would makes things worse.

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

Worse recession for 100 years and Labour down below 30 points

Ed Balls' comment at the weekend and now picked up by the press appear to confirm just how deep this recession is going to be.

As the Independent says the comments carry extra weight in that

he is a former chief economic adviser to the Treasury and regarded as one of the Prime Ministers's closest allies.

The Times maenwhile produces the lastest opinion poll which brings mor e bad news to the government.

Its latest Populus poll shows that Labourhas dropped by 5 points to 28 per cent since last month, its lowest level for nearly six months.The Tories are dowm a point at 42.

This is now the third poll that has shown the party below the 30 mark and may be even more worrying is that the Lib Dems are increasing their share of the vote(up 3 points) at the expense of Labour.

Oxford Reds

With many columnists writing over the weekend that last week's events marked the end of Labour,it wasn't long before the speculation starts over their new leader.

Mike Smithson ,as ever, is quick off the mark postulating that to shadow a new Oxford PM,the part will need one of their own.

Step forward three candidates,Ed Miliband,Ed Balls and James Purnell who all have attended that great institution.

As Mike points out

All three read the same degree, Politics, Philosophy and Economics, that David Cameron (Brasenose) did at Oxford and all three are said to be working hard building alliances within the party so that they can launch their bids when the vacancy occurs.

And that all Labour PM's who have commanded a large majority ie Blair and Atlee also attended.

Cross out,rub out,oops it's still correct

A must read piece in this week's edition of the Spectator by Liz Brocklehurst.

Liz,a former marker of the SAT's paper recounts some tales from the past which will only add weight to the pressure on Ed Balls

Liz was

a Key Stage 2 Science marker, sworn to Masonic-like secrecy about this mysterious testing process. In my innocence I had expected it to be a straightforward procedure, but I hadn’t allowed for the serial incompetence, the human error, the vagaries of postal deliveries, and most important: the political pressure.

And she describes some of the practices,including

if the child wrote the correct answer, but then, on second thoughts, decided it was wrong and crossed it out, the crossing-out still gained the mark.

and it gets better

Correct spelling was completely irrelevant — to the point of absurdity. I remember one question required the one-word answer ‘air’. But markers were instructed that even words such as ‘her’ must be accepted as worthy of the mark. ‘Well,’ argued one senior examiner, ‘the child might speak with a Liverpudlian accent.’

The worrying thing is that these practices have been going on for 10 years,this isn't something that has just occurred under EAT.

A defiant Balls

Steve Richards has a interview with the man of the moment Ed Balls in this morning's Indy.

Under pressure over the Sat tests but standing firm on his reaction to it in the face of a Tory and media onslaught,he claims to have been kept in the dark over the problems at

Only at the beginning of July did we hear that the marking was not on track and there were substantial computer problems."

and adds

"I had a meeting with Ken Boston, the chief executive of the QCA, on 2 June. I asked him questions about marking, quality assurance and delivery and he reassured me that there had been some issues but that he had sorted them out".

He also sees education as one of the dividing lines between the two parties at the next election.

Perhaps though the revelation when asked the ultimate question about his leader

"None of us went into the Labour conference last year thinking an early election was the right thing, but once the speculation began and once the planning had begun it was hard to reverse it."

. but

the next six months will be difficult for Brown,I don't think anyone believes a change of leader would do any good at all... Gordon has the experience, policy and vision."

War breaks out in the Labour Party.

Nick Robinson describes it as "an extraordinary on the record briefing."

Ed Balls has accused Frank Field as trying to bring down the Prime Minister as well as describing him as a loner and as being dishonourable.

Of course all this is simply providing more ammunition for the opposition parties.Nick Clegg has already described ministers as acting as rats in the bag.All this has overshadowed the so called relaunch today.It also puts Brown under even more pressure if that was at all possible.

The one thing that Labour had in its favour was unity,compared for example to the Major government.Now is the final act being cast?

I like the post over at Westmonster

Will the tides of time sweep over Mr Brown to leave him drowning? Or will he be cleansed and resurrected before the game's over?

What you do when you're team loses,write a letterto the Times

Charles Clarke's letter to this morning's Times has been the talk of the blogosphere today.

The former home secretary attacks Ed Balls' timely interventio last week against people briefing against Gordon Brown saying His injunctions about the “indulgent nonsense” of “private briefings against the Labour leader” certainly come from one who is well acquainted with this kind of activity

A reference to the fact that Balls was the undeclared leader of the sources used by Gordon Brown when attacking Tony Blair.

According to Iain Dale

This kind of attack is interesting for various reasons,It is further evidence of
the disintegration of the New Labour project ,that Charles Clarke isn't beyond
doing some very effective off the record briefings himself and,it adds further
fuel to the debate about what Clarke's 'endgame' is.

James Forsyth agrees

having spent ten years undermining Tony Blair whenever it suited them, the Brownites don’t have the standing to call for party loyalty.

But according to Jon Craig,there is another reason for the attack

Ed's response? "I think Charles and I were both in a bad mood this weekend after our team, Norwich City, lost 2-1 to West Brom - and he chose to kick me rather than the dog," he said.

Balls' warning for the rebels

As the papers continue to carry stories of a collapse in confidence in Gordon Brown,the Times this morning carries an interview with his first lieutenant Ed Balls.

According to the paper he said that

Labour must not fall for false prophets, and gave warning that Labour would be
“intolerant” of anyone who put personal interests and disappointments before the
party’s and the country’s.

And on his leader

“Anybody who has the strength and conviction to take the tough decisions he did
on public spending in his first two years, resist pressure to go into the euro
and deal with fears of recession in 1998 and 2001 shows that he knows how to
handle difficult times

.

Best bit of the budget debate

Some might say this was the best bit of the budget debate yesterday as David Cameron turns on Ed Balls in the chamber

Thanks to Guido for the clip