Standing twenty metres from Ed Miliband during his speech in Hyde Park on Saturday, the crowd around me clapped and cheered loudly, as I did, when he referred to “a Chancellor of the Exchequer who tries to travel first class on a standard class ticket“. Again, louder still when he attacked the “incompetent, hopeless, u-turning, pledge-breaking, […]
Posts Tagged ‘Ed Balls’
Why is Labour so timid?
Sep 29th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.It’s all very well for Ed Balls to announce that the next Labour government will be ‘ruthless and disciplined’ over public spending and will carry through a zero-based spending review to justify every pound spent. Of course that’s right since nobody in their right mind can believe that the Tory spending cuts can be reversed […]
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Greek exit won’t save euro: fundamental restructuring needed
May 15th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.With the smart money on an early Greek exit, the two main questions to arise are: what will happen to Greece, and what future then for the Eurozone? If Greece leaves, the exchange rate will drop sharply from 340 drachmae to €1 at entry to the euro to perhaps 1,000 drachmae, a loss of value […]
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GMB Congress to consider investigating party-within-a-party “Progress”
Apr 24th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.The preliminary agenda for the GMB Congress, due to start in Brighton on 10 June, is now available on its internal website. The agenda reveals significant disaffection with the stance taken earlier this year by Ed Balls on public service cuts and pay, with motions from seven out of nine regions, some of which also […]
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Austerity Isn’t Working – time to invest in growth and jobs
Feb 28th, 2012 by Lee Brown.Austerity isn’t working. The disastrous Tory economic experiment has left the economy stagnating, household incomes falling at their fastest rate in decades and unemployment soaring towards three million. Even by the criteria the government has set itself, that of reducing the deficit, it is failing. The Tories are set to borrow £158 billion more than […]
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GMB calls on Ed Balls to reverse position on public sector pay
Feb 21st, 2012 by Newsdesk.GMB, the union for public sector workers, commented on the restatement of Labour’s economic policy made by Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls over the weekend. Brian Strutton, GMB National Secretary for Public Services, said:
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The real divisions in the Labour Party and what Ed should do about it
Jan 25th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Most Labour party members are, above all, loyal to their party. They have a strong inclination to back their leaders, even when they disagree with what they’ve said or done. And disagree they did, by and large, when Ed Balls announced that “the starting point….is we’re going to have to keep all these cuts” and accept […]
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Not all Clause IV moments lead to victory
Jan 19th, 2012 by Andy Newman.Writing in yesterday’s Financial Times, George Parker and Jim Pickard, give expression to the popular idea that Ed Miliband’s confrontation with the unions provides him with the opportunity for a “Clause IV moment”, defining his independence as a potential prime minister from the legacy of labourism.
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A call to arms
Jan 19th, 2012 by Owen Jones.For those who stand outside the austerity consensus, reading Len McCluskey’s column on Tuesday was like coming up for air. It is a cause of deep frustration that, as the Tories’ economic policies are shown to fail (in terms of jobs, growth, consumer confidence, economic inactivity and borrowing levels), the Labour leadership has moved to legitimise […]
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Don’t count on McCluskey to make the break
Jan 18th, 2012 by David Osler.Leeds United defender Norman Hunter, renowned for his perhaps overly robust approach to defence, famous advised young footballers to ‘get your retaliation in first’. The wisecrack metamorphosed into something of a New Labour catchphrase in the mid 1990s, with the line slightly altered to ‘get your betrayal in first’. Recent statements from both Ed Balls and […]
