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Balls on Miliband
Interesting interview with Ed Balls in the Telegraph on life after losing his seat and his disagreements with Miliband over policy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11768761/Ed-Balls-first-interview-since-labour-shadow-chancellors-shock-general-election-defeat.html
Despite disagreeing with a lot of his politics, I've always had a sneaking admiration for Balls. He may have been the "most annoying man in politics" but at least he had a personality which is more than what most of contemporaries had.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11768761/Ed-Balls-first-interview-since-labour-shadow-chancellors-shock-general-election-defeat.html
Despite disagreeing with a lot of his politics, I've always had a sneaking admiration for Balls. He may have been the "most annoying man in politics" but at least he had a personality which is more than what most of contemporaries had.
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I think you could be right there. So many of them are turning against Milliband, its a pity they didn't speak up before the election. Not that Im bothered because I didn't want a labour government especially with Milliband in charge.
It was significant that Miliband made Alan Johnson Shadow Chancellor initially. Miliband knew that Balls was toxic and should be kept away from economic affairs but when Johnson resigned, Miliband's hands were tied and Balls got the job. Johnson cut a more plausible figure as a potential Chancellor than Balls.
Alan Johnson is one of the very few labour people that I like. He is a good bloke and its a pity for labour that he didn't step in and take over from Milliband when it was muted. Labour were never going to win with Milliband in charge and Balls handling the economy.
I agree, Johnson is a likable chap but he doesn't know the first thing about economics as his appearances against Osborne and in the media showed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/8272156/Alan-Johnson-the-gaffes-as-shadow-chancellor.html
If Miliband didn't want to appoint Balls and his big brother didn't want to work under him then he could have done worse than having Alistair Darling as his Shadow Chancellor who was one of the few minister to come out of the 2005-2010 government with any credibility left.
I read somewhere he also offered his brother the job first.
Hardly. Balls was/is one of the best qualified economists in the country - Johnson was a postman. Balls gets the credit for resisting the push to join the Euro and for setting up an independant Bank of England. the key policies that went right. The ones that went wrong - over dependence on the financial sector, inadequate regulation, overspending on tax credits, a failure to make the public sector more efficient, a failure to tackle the benefits culture even more, and overspending on building new buildings with PFI , were pushed by Brown, and would have been there whoever was in his team.
Johnson got the joib because he would otherwise have looked like the leader they should have had in exile. Equally, you wouldn't want somone as strong as Balls as Chancellor - if you understood as little economics as Miliband, and didn't want to create him as your Brown figure.
Johnson was seen as a bit lightweight in economic matters, it's only since leaving the frontbench and the success of his memoirs that his reputation has risen considerably.