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Ed Balls uniquely qualified to be Shadow Chancellor

There have been two important outcomes from the debate over the last few months: Ed Miliband has come from behind to win support for change in the party. And Ed Balls has, in beginning to turn public opinion on the deficit back towards Labour, demonstrated his unique qualification to be Ed Miliband’s shadow chancellor. 

Ed Miliband said himself, in his acceptance speech as Leader:

Every Tory minister will be quaking in their boots about the prospect of you shadowing them because you can both take on, and win, big arguments for Labour. “

What argument will be bigger over the coming year or two that that over the deficit and the right response to the economic crisis? What argument will make the biggest difference to restoring employment growth in Britain, protecting living standards and the well-being of the most vulnerable? Mark Ferguson at Labour List  said of him:

His Bloomberg speech in which he attacked “growth deniers” was seen as the point at which the country at large began to sit up and listen.

There are those who suggest appointing a less well qualified candidate, committed to policies which have already failed to convince the electorate,  as an expedient response to  “answer Conservative taunts of ‘Red Ed’, a poodle of the unions”. They are suggesting taking a terrible risk. Balls to that.

2 Comments

  1. Bev says:

    I couldn’t agree more. It’s really important that the shadow cabinet has the right people in the right jobs – and the great thing is that there are so many good people in the party. Ed B has shown that he is the person with right grasp of economics to set out labour’s stall in a credible, realistic and intelligent way.

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