Blog articles tagged with Ed Balls

Solving the Middle East crisis with cheesecake

by Gráinne Maguire / 28 Sep 2011 09:30

Day three and conference is beginning to feel like Glastonbury. My guide is battered mess of ringed events I’ve missed, I keep losing my friends and I’ve started using wet wipes. I’ve still to see any speeches in the main hall, the conference equivalent of the pyramid stage. I had planned on going to see Ed’s big speech today, but it transpires, political events are not like queing for Westlife tickets. You can’t just

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Ed Balls doesn't quite get it right

by Caroline Crampton / 26 Sep 2011 13:22

We know that Ed Balls is supposed to be Labour's attack dog on the economy. He is a tour de force at the despatch box, railing at George Osborne for his lack of a plan B and never budging an inch on the fact that he believes that coalition's cuts are 'too far, too fast'.

But in his speech today, it was a different Ed Balls who addressed the Labour Party conference in

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Who will suffer in the constituency shake up?

by Richard Roberts / 13 Sep 2011 13:07

The dust is beginning to settle after the scrum caused by MPs in Portcullis House yesterday lunchtime, all desperate to get their hands on a copy of the Boundary Commission’s proposals for changing constituency boundaries in England. While there is still a lengthy consultation process to come, the impact this review is likely to have on the futures of sitting MPs is beginning to become clear. Many in Westminster today still seem to be

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If Ed Balls wants to watch cricket at Lord's, good on him

by Nik Darlington / 22 Jul 2011 12:55

"He brings to the fierce struggles of politics the tepid enthusiasm of a lazy summer afternoon at a cricket match."

I don’t know who Nye Bevan was referring to back then, but it can safely be said that the sentiment cannot be applied to Ed Balls today. To put it lightly, Labour’s shadow chancellor brings a touch too much enthusiasm to the fierce struggles of politics.

Yet a lazy summer

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Timing of the Balls leak proves it’s a damp squib

by Laurence Durnan / 10 Jun 2011 21:45

“Seemingly Blair and Brown didn't get on. Rumour has it that Brown wanted Blair's job”, deadpanned LabourList editor Mark Ferguson.

Those looking for further evidence that leaked memos from Ed Balls, published by the Telegraph this morning, are insubstantial need not look beyond the issue of timing. Michael White muses thusly:

"Did the Tories find the stuff and

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Ed Balls' piggy doodle

by Caroline Crampton / 10 Jun 2011 12:30

Jamie Reed has written an excellent piece for us explaining why the media furore over the leaked Ed Balls memos is just masking the real division in the Labour party. But for those who are interested in the slightly lighter side of this story, the Telegraph have got something for you as well.

The picture above comes some of Balls' handwritten notes, in which he lays out the key players in

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Labour's new divide

by Jamie Reed MP / 10 Jun 2011 12:14

Political convention tells us that the public hates divided political parties. It’s true, of course, and the latest media scrimmage around the re-hash of the old Blair-Brown divide through leaked memos should remind us of two things.

First of all, everyone in the country knew of the fissure between Blair and Brown. Attempts to spin this ancient revelation as genuine news at the end of a truly awful week for the government is

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Yvette Cooper on her battle with ME

by Amber Elliott / 06 Jun 2011 13:22

I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days at the Hay Festival this weekend. As well as witnessing a rather dodgy American accent from Richard E Grant and a surprisingly humorous ElBaradei, I also grabbed a ticket for a last-minute appearance from Yvette Cooper.

The shadow home secretary revealed to the audience that, at the age of 24, she had suffered from ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis). She has rarely talked openly about

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Ed Balls: backbenchers' open goal

by Jerry Hayes / 30 May 2011 11:14

If I was an ambitious backencher determined place my perfectly formed bottom onto the fake tan leather of a ministerial Skoda, I would starting asking a whole stream of questions about Ed Balls and Ms Shoesmith.

The key to this little scandal, where a clearly incompetent woman sits on the moral high ground despite her department failing a vulnerable little boy, is in the decision-making process at ministerial level.

Read more…

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PMQs: Someone call a doctor

by Amber Elliott / 27 Apr 2011 14:01

"Calm down dear. Calm down and listen to the doctor."

And with that nod to Michael Winner, the prime minister became engulfed in a sexism row.

It all started quite innocently. Ed Miliband had a go at David Cameron for his "costly" health reforms.

Cameron replied that Miliband should be "constructive" instead of "frightening people" (basically citing the Bambi defence – 'If you can't say anything nice, don't say nothing

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Balls interrupts PMQs

by Ben Duckworth / 30 Mar 2011 13:24

He just can’t keep out of the limelight can he? Just as the moans about it being a ‘flat’ PMQs because the bear pit has been more subdued than normal, up pops Ed Balls. Or rather, down sits Ed Balls because without even moving from his frontbench position he succeeded to make David Cameron completely lose his thread and brand Balls “the most annoying man in modern politics”. He also wished “the shadow chancellor

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