What do we reckon then? Good/bad/indifferent?
I dont like him much, but I respect his skill at putting his point across, he really can send a point home and I suspect Georgie will be sorry to see Johnson go, now the real games begin.
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Another loony leftie who wants to borrow and spend more to get us out of debt.
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Is anyone outside of the media circus, or the benefit culture bothered with nulab any more, a joke party before and nothings changed, except they've run out of borrowed money to bribe their voters with....for the time being.
Not to worry we the working population can pay the debt, then...rinse and repeat.
Poor old politicians, but good of them to lead from the front, how are they going to manage with their 10% pay and no expenses cut...sorry, just woke from a dreamscape.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Sat 22 Jan 11 at 20:33
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>>Another loony leftie,,>>
His missus is one of the most patronising, irritating, screechy voiced individuals around.....
Last edited by: Stuartli on Sat 22 Jan 11 at 20:33
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Can't stand him, how any could vote for him I don't know. Chief sycophant of Gordo. Strikes me as someone who knows how to play the game ver well, but very little intellect. Should be no-where near anything of any importance.
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The wrong miliband was chosen. He was put up as the weak mouthpiece of the same old guard.
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>> The wrong miliband was chosen. He was put up as the weak mouthpiece of the
>> same old guard.
>>
Proof of how the Unions got their man to be leader:
"The final round left David Miliband with 53.436% of the MPs' vote (140 MPs), 54.405% of Labour members' votes (66,814 people), and 40.2% of the union vote (80,266), giving him a total share of 49.35%.
Ed Miliband had 46.566% of the MPs' vote (122 MPs), 45.594% of Labour members' votes (55,992) and 59.802% of the union vote (119,405 votes), giving him an overall share of 50.65%."
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>> his skill at putting his point across, he really can send a point home
>>
You must be thinking of a different Ed Balls to the one I have in mind.
He got little support* during the Labour leadership elections, and he was quite happy to knife Gordon then, and he is quite happy to change his views to suit those of Ed Miliband to get the new job.
I can't stand the sight of Ed Balls and his permanently glum faced wife, and Harriet Harperson, and Ed Miliband in that order.
Balls will have no chance against George as balls has said too many contradictory things in just a few months, and to top it all he has the history of failed economic policies behind him.
* www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11412031
* Round 1: David Miliband 37.78%, Ed Miliband 34.33% Diane Abbott eliminated
* Round 2: David Miliband 38.89%, Ed Miliband 37.47%. Andy Burnham eliminated
* Round 3: David Miliband 42.72%, Ed Miliband 41.26%, Ed Balls eliminated
* Round 4: David Miliband 49.35%, Ed Miliband 50.65%. Ed Miliband wins.
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>> He got little support* during the Labour leadership elections, and he was quite happy to
>> knife Gordon then, and he is quite happy to change his views to suit those
>> of Ed Miliband to get the new job.
Sounds like your typical career politician. The problem is our system is full of 'em. Not a single principle to their name.
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Wouldn't trust him any further than than I could throw him.
Although I'd gladly throw him a lot further.
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>>You must be thinking of a different Ed Balls to the one I have in mind.<<
Not at all. Ive watched him on Question Time and that man knows how to argue like he believes it - reminds me of Mormon missionaries when he talks, as if any other view aside from his is akin to suggesting the world is flat.
Im not saying he is right, far from it, I loath him, he is the kinda guy you wanna punch square in the face every time he speaks BUT he believes his own hype and he can make utter nonesense sound plausible even if it clearly isnt.
I watched Caroline Spelman on Thursday night and she has no gravitas whatsoever, although to be fair, she was on a panel with Galloway and Ally Campbell and nobody likes the sound of their own voice more than those two.
Still, some people make an impact, some dont. Your not going to miss Ed Balls in a conversation.
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As a slight aside, but one I feel relevant in the circumstances:
tinyurl.com/6l8f44m
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The worst thing about all this is the headlines, now - "Labour will soon find out if two Eds are better than one" (Telegraph)
Please, stop already.
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Labour has only got one ball.....
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Balls is an apostle of Brown, late, or soon to be when a better sinecure appears, of the People's Republic of Fife.
How many leading politicians (of any party) worked for a living before Politics - by working I mean in charge of P&L, building, designing, manufacturing something that someone else would buy & sell - very few - Brown spent his life after Univ as a researcher, apprentice politician.............working his way up before the fall - no real grip on most ordinary people's view of life and it's issues.
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None of this really matters anyway we don't really have a say. I voted lib dem, the last thing I expected was them to join the Tories.
That said my local lib dem MP is still very good and has done a damn sight more than the labour MP ever did.
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Ed Balls is a very unpleasant man .. and anyone who claims to be a friend of his is equally unpleasant. The kind of person whom you can trust implicitly - to stab you in the back..
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Mr Balls seriously believes he is only fit for one job: PM. Happily, his elevation to Shadow Chancellor helps to ensure that NuLab (or is it now just LeftLab?) will be unable to successfully persuade the UK electorate that the party should govern us again .. for a long time, at least. As wealthy donors vanish, Red Ed M'band will have to rely even more on the unions' generosity - and this should ensure that the voters will never forget who holds the power.
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B, " NuLab (or is it now just LeftLab?) will be unable to successfully persuade the UK electorate that the party should govern us again " I do hope you're right but there is one born every minute. People who, to use a saying once used of Hartlepool, would vote for a monkey if it wore a red rosette.
John
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People who, to use a saying once
>> used of Hartlepool, would vote for a monkey if it wore a red rosette.
>>
That used to be particularly true in the Welsh valleys; it was Labour or nothing.
A combination of immigration, a lack of direction after the pit closures, and disaffection with Nulab have diluted that, but I suspect the Lib Dems, who given the Welsh tradition of liberalism should have benefitted most, have undermined their advantage by joining forces with the Conservatives.
Further west, the Conservatives have made considerable gains; our former local MP was a Labour man, and well-liked across the spectrum, but he lost heavily at the last election.
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...would vote for a monkey if it wore a red rosette...
Another saying is Labour votes are not counted in the North East, they are weighed.
Every constituency in County Durham returned a Labour MP at the last election, but the next constituency going south is Richmond in North Yorkshire where William Hague has one of the safest Tory seats in the country.
Hague is, I think, the most northerly Tory MP, which demonstrates the north/south divide in politics.
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>>
>> Hague is, I think, the most northerly Tory MP, which demonstrates the north/south divide in politics.
>>
>>
>> David Mundell is a Scottish Tory MP - the only tory in Scotland @ Westminster
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...David Mundell is a Scottish Tory MP - the only tory in Scotland @ Westminster...
I did wonder about Scotland.
And just to correct myself, there is a Tory in Hexham in Northumberland.
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Rory Stewart is a Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border which is a fair way north.
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...for Penrith and the Border...
T'other side of the Pennines - we don't think about over there. :)
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>>I voted lib dem, the last thing I expected was them to join the Tories. <<
No, but then the Lib Dems grew a set and realised that it was their only chance to drive some of their agenda through. Any policy the Lib Dems get through is a victory for them because in the normal run of things, they would have got zero, which would have been a proper wasted vote.
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Although Ed Balls is a horrible man, his policies- which are you get something for nothing - appeal to lots of people . And it makes sense for them to do so.
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His policies may be right or wrong, his personality stinks - he'll have to get over that before he becomes a "statesman", they have something that sets them apart from mere politicians, they are consequently few and far between
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...before he becomes a "statesman"...
Can't think when we had the last one, although it may be a title only conferred with the help of historical perspective.
I just can't see Blair being mentioned in the same breath as Churchill, even in 50 years time.
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It used to be Jack Straw for me until the Iraq inquiry....possibly Robin Cook - maybe Ken Clarke - I think that William Hague nearly gets to there...
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>>No, but then the Lib Dems grew a set and realised that it was their only chance to drive some of their agenda through>>
Even more so as they ended up with five fewer seats than before and that linking up with Labour (as they were tempted very strongly to do so) would have left the UK in complete limbo through lack of a majority.
Doubt too if the electorate would have forgiven Clegg and Co for trying to form an alliance with a despised party that lost so heavily.
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To divert, this is the whole problem with our political system ie: career politicos with no experience of real life.
The answer, imo, is to set the minimum age for any form of political office at about 50, so they have to earn a crust before taking a seat.
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I was always reasonably impressed by Balls, even if I didn't agree with him (ever). Then I saw him on the TV; what a thug.
My prediction for the next election is a Labour victory. The current Government has nothing to look forward to save for complete obliteration. As stagflation bites, nobody will thank them - nor remember who stuffed us here.
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I was always reasonably impressed by Balls, even if I didn't agree with him (ever). Then I saw him on the TV; what a thug.
My prediction for the next election is a Labour victory. The current Government has nothing to look forward to save for complete obliteration. As stagflation bites, nobody will thank them - nor remember who stuffed us here.
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His surname is an apt description of the noises his mouth makes.
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Balls is a public school Labourite. The worst kind.
A friend of mine was in his class at school. He says he was the cockiest little oik and easily the least liked boy in the form. Destined to be a successful politician by all accounts.
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>>easily the least liked boy in the form.
Not something I think they say about Boris, Cameron or Osborne.
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Ed Balls anyone?
Not for me thank you.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Balls
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Ed Balls anyone? - Old Navy
