You are right about his popularity - he was never popular as Shadow Chancellor and he is making progress. Really now there are very good dancers left - including the Judge - so I think it is time he was in the bottom two.

I'd love him to win

So a relatively small number (literally a handful) of disgruntled Twitter keyboard warriors are the basis for this "story" (yet again).

Nearly 11 million viewers set against how many?

And yes, the voting public are keeping him there, if others don't like it then vote in greater numbers to save another dancer. That's how it woks.

Why do people assume that a show has to be customised to their personal taste and that the views of others don't matter. BBC do not design shows for any particular individual. If they were designing one for me it would have Ballroom and Latin only, would have mainly same dances each week, and judges would all be experts. BUT.....they don't design for me. They design for everyone and Ed has been very popular this year.

As someone who takes their dancing very seriously, I like Ed being there. I love Katya's choreography. There are no other celebs that I am desperate to keep in the show, although I do like them all this year, and so if a good celeb goes that is fine by me.

I'm also bemused by the fact that people get so serious about 'the dancing' but if a serious ballroom show or competition were to be put on TV most people wouldn't go near it.

ED Balls knocks spots off the likes of John Sargeant and Ann Widdecombe and no way should he quit. Ed is entertaining, he puts hours into his training and is taking the whole thing seriously.

People crawling out the woodwork and demanding he should quit make me want to vote for him all the more and that's exactly what I'll do. He'll certainly be getting an extra vote now that Greg has gone though I'll be saving one for Judge Rinder.

As Will Young 'walked' I don't think they can afford another 'quitter' so no chance of the BBC hinting to him he should go. They are already one more down than they should be at this stage.

Of course he shouldn't quit. He's there completely fairly and obviously people want him to be there considering it is purely the public keeping him in. If the public don't want him in? Vote for other people!

I see a number of people saying Danny shouldn't be there and his inclusion isn't fair given his extensive dance training. Should he 'do the decent thing' and quit too?

So a handful of tweeters get mad at Ed going through and it is called a 'backlash'! There have been people on Twitter complaining about Ed from week 1 to be honest so this is no different. The same on the Facebook page. It is nothing new. If he is getting votes from the public that enable him to stay he deserves to stay. There have to be people using their phones to vote from him so are therefore paying for their votes so for him to just 'pull out' would be an insult to them and telling them he didn't care about them. I had been voting for him and Greg over the past few weeks - though I only use the free online votes with 2 accounts - so unless someone grabs me next week I will probably throw them all to Ed next week.

Couldn't stand Ed the politician but I am enjoying watching him as he is hopeless but he is loving every minute.
All credit should go to Katya who has done a remarkable job just keeping him on his feet.
That's why I vote for him.

Was it necessary for you to be quite so rude to the FM? You seem to have a decent vocabulary so you should have been able to make your point without resorting to insult.

That's the one thing that John Sargent didn't do...

Why should he quit if people voted for him?

Even though I want him to go as soon as possible, I don't want anyone to quit.

I agree. No one should quit, not EVEN DANNY.

It is just getting ridiculous, we don't really want to see 16 Ed Balls level of dancing contestants and at the same time we don't want 16 Danny's. The competition should be relatively balanced.

Amen.

I have found most of Ed's dances entertaining although did not like his Blackpool routine. I was particularly gutted as Greg, my favourite, went out. However I certainly do not think Ed should quit.

I don't want him to win but if he does it will be because more people voted for him than any other pure and simple. If we watch the show we have to accept that.

I didn't like John Sergeant at all but thought he was wrong to quit and also pretty arrogant to assume he was going to win - I never thought he would.

I honestly think there is a good chance Ed will go in the next two weeks but we will see. As someone else has said Ann Widdicombe was still in at this stage and she was absolutely terrible with an awful attitude. I really disliked her on the show and could never believe people would vote for her (she wasn't funny or entertaining in my view) but they did vote and so she deserved to be there

Agreed. Katya has done a fantastic job.

What a ridiculous thread.

Why should Ed quit? He has earned his place and brings joy to so many people. And I can guarantee that if Ed wasn't in it at all people would be complaining that Strictly would be boring and too serious, or something like that. Methinks the OP doesn't like Ed...

And if Ed DOES quit then there would be a two couple final. And surely nobody would want that?

Ann Widdecombe made the quarter finals and was worse than Ed.

How come some papers, & the BBC itself get away with telling us Balls is "Thru" before the results programme is aired? That is a "Spoiler" isn't it?

Ed won't quit. Why should he? There's a reason Greg ended up in the dance off and Ed didn't.

It's called PUBLIC SUPPORT. When / if he loses it he will be out.

So let me get this straight.
More of the public who are voting in the show are voting for Ed Balls than several of the other contestants

A few who presumably voted for the less popular contestants are saying because they didnt get their way -he should quit and so completely disrespect the many who have voted for him.

Thats basically it isnt it?

Dont get me wrong I would have preferred Ed to go out before Daisy, Laura and Greg but in reality they have probably only gone home a week early.

Also there is no doubt that Ed and Katya are really trying and the routines are actually entertaining - even if not technically as good as some of the others. I definitely have a lot more time for him than Sergeant or Widdecombe both of who I couldnt stand - but even then whilst people kept voting for them they had every right to stay in

I dont think Ed will win in any case - I expect him to go in the next couple of weeks as the votes get concentrated into fewer dancers and the chances of Ed still being saved become much less. As soon as he finishes in the bottom 2 he is gone.

Complete and utter nonsense.

Ed is clearly getting huge public support in the actual voting as he has yet to be in the bottom two.

Britain seems to be changing more and more into an entitlement culture, where individuals who find something doesn't go the way they wanted it to seem to think they can change the decision so it goes in their favour.

We are very lucky to live in a country where democracy rules, people railing against this need to wind their necks in and suck it up.

As much as I desperately want him to go, I don't think he should quit. Yet.

I still have faith that GBP will come to ther senses and vote him off before the final.

However, should the public still be saving him by the Semi-Finals then he should do the honourable thing and fall on his sword.

Let's see if the public come to their senses.

I think Katya has done a really good job with ED, not only is he entertaining in his dances, but he also gets into the choreography that she provides him. He has improving, albeit not as quickly as some others. He deserves his place on the show as much as Danny or Louise. He shows personality, and really enjoys it. In many ways SCD is a popularity show as well well as a dance competition. If it were all about the dancing there would be no public vote. Just my humble opinion, which I know many will disagree with

Ed Balls for President, and leader of the Brexit negotiations. Stranger things have happened during votes this year! Personally I expect a Rinder/Redknapp final, but am happy with whoever wins. It's entertainment in the long run, not a gladiatorial competition.

Since when has logic been part of strictly forum, this place is the extra bonus from the show ,

Ps keep up your informed pieces im still learning