What a u-turn. Wet Balls in the extreme.

How about more detail on the cuts he does/does not oppose?

These toothless middle-roaders have absolutely no idea/interest whatsoever about the realities of these cuts for real people.

And this attempt to ignore the realities of the cuts and shift the focus to jobs and growth is useless. The two can’t be separated out. Cuts and redundancies on the sort of scale that we’re seeing have a direct impact on jobs and growth.

I was at a Middlesborough community centre on Thursday – the centre offers employment support, among other things, and is, of course, about to close down. On the day I was there, the computer rooms were packed with young men and women whose businesses were closing down (they ran local restaurants and takeaway shops, etc) because of the recession’s impact. They were all there writing their CVs and trying to apply online for jobs – jobs that simply don’t exist.

The centre manager was quite clear that Middlesborough council’s plans to lay off large numbers of people would only exacerbate the already-crushing effect of the recession on job and growth prospects. How’s big Ed planning to handle that one? Which big employer is he planning to encourage to relocate to that area? The council will no longer have the business development funds it needs to encourage the kind of investment that’ll put thousands of jobs back.

This is pathetic.

…and in addition to being pathetic, this post is also a press release. Please head it up as such.

Jobs and growth? Isn’t that what the Tories *say* too? Where are the details? This is just rhetoric, as meaningless as ‘change’ or ‘fairness’.

“This Tory Chancellor and this Tory-led government are repeating the mistakes of the 1930s and 1980s”

Given that the British economy didn’t do too badly in the 1930s despite the Great Depression I would be interested to know what Balls is referring to.

I presume that in regard to the 1980s he’s referring to the austerity budget of 1981(?) which doesn’t really help his case given that the economy began to recover shortly afterwards.

I am, only slightly, worried that in this we see a lot less of the accepting blame that Ed Miliband did last week and a lot more attacking of government policy that has been lacking from Labour of late.

This is exactly what we need from the opposition Chancellor, but, we also have to remember that the public is still furious about Labour’s part in this economic crisis and see people like Ed Balls as those responsible. It would be a very dangerous image to portray Labour as unwilling to accept blame and I think Ed will have to work on balancing attacks on Tory-led policy with a clear message why Labour would have been a better option. They facilitated this mess, but they also started a well thought out clean-up plan.

To those who are looking for detailed policy already, it is somewhat early. The appointment came as bit of a shock and only happened earlier this week.

Yes, reprinting Labour Party press releases now, are we? Dearie me, and you call the Tory bloggers slavish.

I also enjoyed this:

As expected, Ed Balls is staying in line with Ed Miliband’s plans (the leader sets the line, not the shadow chancellor)

This on day 2 of his tenure, mind you. I suppose by Ed Balls’ standards that constitutes a new record for loyalty.

`”a lot more attacking of government policy that has been lacking from Labour of late.”

Have you been on Mars? All they’ve done is to attack the government’s cuts, and not set out which cuts they’d make, whilst avoiding any blame for the financial crisis (“it was the banks, guv”).

Also, Kate’s response shows the problem: what the far left wants is complete denial of any necessity for cuts, whereas Labour realises this won’t fly with the majority of people so need to play to the far left crowd by talking about growth whilst not ruling out any cuts.

@7. The Two Eds

Have you been on Mars? All they’ve done is to attack the government’s cuts, and not set out which cuts they’d make, whilst avoiding any blame for the financial crisis (“it was the banks, guv”).

I would disagree. They certainly weren’t there to attack the cuts to higher education that caused the tuition fee cap to be raised, letting down a great number of students. They were also certainly not fast enough in criticising the VAT rise. Again, there seemed to be no sense of urgency in defending EMA.

For me they have either not spoken up loudly about many of the cuts, or there wasn’t any sense of urgency in speaking up.

Also, they have begun to accept blame for the crisis. I agree that this was once again slow in being advertised, but it has begun to happen. However, we equally can not allow the coalition to continuing selling the lie that this global crisis was all the fault of Labour.

Also, Kate’s response shows the problem: what the far left wants is complete denial of any necessity for cuts, whereas Labour realises this won’t fly with the majority of people so need to play to the far left crowd by talking about growth whilst not ruling out any cuts.

I don’t think there are a great number of people that feel we would be fine without a single cut. The emphasis is that the way in which this coalition is cutting is unfair and potentially harmful to the economy, that’s the view Labour takes as well as a majority in this country.

@7. The Two Eds

Have you been on Mars? All they’ve done is to attack the government’s cuts, and not set out which cuts they’d make, whilst avoiding any blame for the financial crisis (“it was the banks, guv”).

I would disagree. They certainly weren’t there to attack the cuts to higher education that caused the tuition fee cap to be raised, letting down a great number of students. They were also certainly not fast enough in criticising the VAT rise. Again, there seemed to be no sense of urgency in defending EMA.

For me they have either not spoken up loudly about many of the cuts, or there wasn’t any sense of urgency in speaking up.

Also, they have begun to accept blame for the crisis. I agree that this was once again slow in being advertised, but it has begun to happen. However, we equally can not allow the coalition to continuing selling the lie that this global crisis was all the fault of Labour.

Also, Kate’s response shows the problem: what the far left wants is complete denial of any necessity for cuts, whereas Labour realises this won’t fly with the majority of people so need to play to the far left crowd by talking about growth whilst not ruling out any cuts.

I don’t think there are a great number of people that feel we would be fine without a single cut. The emphasis is that the way in which this coalition is cutting is unfair and potentially harmful to the economy, that’s the view Labour takes as well as a majority in this country. What is the problem?

I’d like to see Ed Balls come out in favour of a Tobin tax.

@S Pill

Given that he likes to promote impossible solutions to real world economic problems, I’m very much surprised he hasn’t already.

How about more detail on the cuts he does/does not oppose?

Huh? This is ludicrous. Kate do you want to predict what the state of the economy will be in 2015?

Meanwhile, the vast majority of the country who do not read Balls’ blog are being fed a diet of commentary asking how Labour can possibly remain united, having appointed to the Shadow Chancellorship a figure who prominently disagrees with the party’s economic stance, and asking also how Balls can be taken seriously as a defender of that policy, when, once again, it could not be better-known that he doesn’t support it. What a disaster his appointment has turned out to be so far.

Also, talking about what cuts he does or doesn’t oppose moves the argument back on to talking about cuts, when the argument needs to be about how Tory plans will wreck the economy and won’t do anything for unemployment. That’s a stance you previously agreed with Kate. Now you want to go back to a discussion about what Labour would cut / wouldn’t cut? That’s the discussion Osborne wants!

Still silence on land value tax. I assume that suits the Conservatives and the Yellow Book Lib Dems, but for anyone further left it’s got to be on the debating floor, surely?

A good article but this will be the big decider in the next 18 months.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/rogerbootle/8277256/MPC-members-must-stop-up-their-ears-even-a-small-rate-rise-could-be-fatal.html

Low interest rates help business, high interest rates help savers. Big danger, low interest rates stoke up domestic debt. High interest rates stifle borrowing for business growth. Not sure our Ed has a strong grip on his portfolio yet ?

Thought this would make interesting listening. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UvqmZlaAPY

Is it coincidence that Ed Balls looks like the main character in “The Invention of Lying”: http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/now-i-know-whom-ed-balls-reminds-me-of/ ?