Balls reveals Economic Plans....George Osborne's

For the last 18 months Labour have been saying that the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition has been cutting too fast, they have stood along those in the public sector about their pay conditions etc. All the while many of us have asked what are their alternatives for this parliament then.

When finally the Guardian have got to the bottom of the issue in an interview with the Shadow Chancellor today.

Labour's alternative it seems is do exactly what is being done.

Balls says:

"My starting point is, I am afraid, we are going to have keep all these cuts. There is a big squeeze happening on budgets across the piece. The squeeze on defence spending, for instance, is £15bn by 2015. We are going to have to start from that being the baseline. At this stage, we can make no commitments to reverse any of that, on spending or on tax. So I am being absolutely clear about that."

He also says:

"It is now inevitable that public sector pay restraint will have to continue through this parliament. Labour cannot duck that reality and won't. There is no way we should be arguing for higher pay when the choice is between higher pay and bringing unemployment down.

"I know there will be some people in the trade union movement and the Labour party who will think of course Labour has got to oppose that pay restraint in 2014 and 2015. That is something we cannot do, should not do and will not do."

So now we as Lib Dems know just what we have achieved. We have tamed the Conservative plans to make things fairer for those who are worst off than they initially planned and we have done it so well that the Labour party cannot improve on what we have managed to get unto the table.

Therefore plaudits to Danny Alexander and David Laws in the early days for setting up a fairness in the plan to help the UK recovery. For making tough yet fair decisions. Even Ed Balls agrees.

The Unions Anoint Ed

Well in the end it really was a nail biting finish. It was down to the fourth round of the ballot that decided the result between the Milibands. In the end it came down to:

MPs 53-47 to David;
Members 54-46 to David;
Unions 60-40 to Ed.

Overall Ed 50.65% David 49.35%

Yes I was doing the maths in my head before the result for David was declared first (how much of a geek am I?) even turning and saying it. I knew before that forty nine came out of the Chair of the NEC's mouth which Miliband brother was next in line. But the split is that he lost out in two of the three colleges. The members and MPs/MEPs were not behind him, but the Unions were.

However, Nick Robinson and Laura Kuenssberg were talking over round two declarations and most of round three to tell us that David Miliband was smiling and Ed was looking tense, before Nick 'declared' the result for David. My friend Helen Duffet posted a tweet 'Ed Miliband wins title of Labour's best pokerface. Watch 'im.'

So in honour of the new Labour leader's performance before the count was declared here's this.

Balls Quitting Labour Leadership Race is Well...Just...That

There was speculation over the weekend that once the largest union Unite had given its endorsement to Ed Miliband and not Ed Balls that the latter would step down from the leadership race. He is however being backed by the Communication Workers Union.

On Radio 4s World This Weekend Balls has denied that he is quitting, coming out saying that he was "fighting to the end and I'm fighting to win". He went on to say that he was never a front runner for this race having neither the early organisation of some of his rivals, nor the CLP (Constituency Labour Party) and union endorsements of his rivals.

"My message to local party activists, councillors and union members is this: I am fighting to defend the jobs and front line public services in your local communities.

"I will carry on fighting to stop unfair tax rises and the withdrawal of essential benefits, I will carry on fighting to defeat a coalition hell-bent on cutting public services, putting up VAT, cancelling new schools and turning recovery into a double-dip recession.

"I am fighting to win this leadership contest to continue these campaigns, to give a voice to our communities and constituents and to show that as leader I would be best placed to set out an alternative plan for jobs and social justice for our country."

I'm a wee bit concerned with that middle paragraph and am wondering what he was doing about the unfair tax rises and if not withdrawal the obstructing of people being able to access essential benefits easily under the 13 years of Labour. Also during the election Labour were relying on the first quarter's mediocre growth figures as signs of recovery. The second quarter, 2/3 under the coalition government have show significant strengthening (which could all be down to one month) and less chance of a double dip than there may have been going into May's election.

I'm glad that Balls is not stepping out of the race, just wish he and the other contenders will start to admit they have left the UK economy in a state and stop trying to blame everything on someone else. It isn't becoming of them and the British public won't be taken as fools.

Messers Ed Talking Balls Over Iraq

Is there a war going on?

Today Ed Balls said in the Telegraph that the war on Iraq was was "wrong" and "a mistake". Going on to say:

"We shouldn't have changed our argument from international law to regime change in a non-transparent way. It was an error for which we as a country paid a heavy price, and for which many people paid with their lives.

"Saddam Hussein was a horrible man, and I am pleased he is no longer running Iraq. But the war was wrong."

Ed Miliband told the Guardian the decision to go to war was taken "led to a catastrophic loss of trust in Labour" adding:

"I was pretty clear at the time that I thought there needs to be more due process here.

"As we all know, the basis for going to war was on the basis of Saddam's threat in terms of weapons of mass destruction and therefore that is why I felt the weapons inspectors should have been given more time to find out whether he had those weapons, and Hans Blix – the head of the UN weapons inspectorate – was saying that he wanted to be given more time. The basis for going to war was the threat that he posed.

"The combination of not giving the weapons inspectors more time, and then the weapons not being found, I think for a lot of people it led to a catastrophic loss of trust for us, and we do need to draw a line under it."

You'd think there was a leadership election on or something. Oh yes there is.

Of course Balls was an advisor for Gordon Brown at the time of the invasion and is going to some lengths to try to distance himself from the decision that was backed by his then boss. Strange then that he also says if he had been an MP at the time he would have voted for the decision based on the evidence provided and at the same time saying:

"It was a mistake. On the information we had, we shouldn't have prosecuted the war."

So on the information he was privy to he said we shouldn't have prosecuted the war yet at the same time says if he'd been elected he would have voted for it. Huh? Is it just me that finds that argument doesn't add up.

Miliband was in the states at the time unlike big brother David but said he had 'some very heated arguments' with Gordon Brown about it but decided it was better to fight for climate change from inside the cabinet. That would be fighting so hard that you couldn't even get the party to make Parliament cut their own carbon emissions by 10% in 2010 as part of the 10:10 initiative that you said you supported in principle, right?

Well as the only two leadership candidates who weren't elected to the House of Commons at the time of the vote to go to war on Iraq these two may have been able to put a line under it. Sadly they failed to do that with their diversionary tactics.

Labour Admitting Failure on Education

After 12 and half years can a Government who had as its mantra "Education, education, education" be allowed room for error over those at Primary School level? The answer has got to be no.

Yet this morning the Prime Minister and his School's Secretary are going to announce plans to guarantee extra tuition for primary pupils who fall behind. Considering Ed Balls is also calling for a debate with his opposite numbers does he really want to defend that Labour record and that election pledge after 13 years of Labour Government. Brave man.

So why after 12 and half years of Labour controlling the purse strings for most of the UK on education has our current crop of Primary School children been failed to this extent. In Scotland at least the reduction of class sizes in the early years was something that came in as part of a Lib Dem partnership, even it the SNP haven't managed to take it further there is a thrust in Scottish education to give our children the best start possible. The same is not true of England and possibly to an extent Wales.

The other news today that too many of our children are too slow to learn to talk may go part of the way to explaining it. The development of early vocal ability comes from the family of the child. In our society too many parents of young children don't have the time to sit down and spend time with their children to learn these key early skills. However, our education system should then be capable of picking up on these situations and make amends for them as soon after the child enters their doors as possible. Is that too much to ask?

I don't want to hear Brown and Balls using this other breaking news story on the same day as they will be announcing this education proposal as an excuse to get Labour off the hook for over 12 years of failure, failure, failure on education, education, education. For most of that 12 year period we have been reasonably prosperous as a nation and the funding would have been then to set up such a scheme long ago. I doubt this is a new issue that has suddenly dawned on the Department of Education and Children

Master of the House?

I'd just like to draw your attention to this brilliant casting of 'One More Day' from Les Miserables by Political Dissuasion.

Footnote: I would have tagged more of the cast list but Blogger wouldn't let me, look for yourself.