Ed Balls: Crisis more serious than the '30s

PasturesNew

The financial crisis will be "more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s", cabinet minister Ed Balls has predicted.
Mr Balls, a former economic adviser to Gordon Brown, said the global recession would be the most serious for "over 100 years", the Yorkshire Post reported.
He told a Labour conference that these were "seismic events that are going to change the political landscape".
The Conservatives said the remarks were "staggering and very worrying".
Mr Balls, the schools secretary, made the comments at Labour's Yorkshire conference at the weekend, the newspaper reported.
Mr Balls and Downing Street have attempted to play down the significance of his remarks, insisting he had been pointing out the unique nature of the global financial crisis and was not predicting that the impact on ordinary people would be worse than that experienced during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
'Define politics'
According to the Yorkshire Post, he said: "The economy is going to define our politics in this region and in Britain in the next year, the next five years, the next 10 and even the next 15 years.
"These are seismic events that are going to change the political landscape.
"I think that this is a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s and we all remember how the politics of that era were shaped by the economy."
Mr Balls, MP for Normanton, added: "We now are seeing the realities of globalisation, though at a speed, pace and ferocity which none of us have seen before.
"The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I'm sure, over 100 years as it will turn out."
For the Conservatives, shadow Treasury minister Phillip Hammond said: "This is a staggering and very worrying admission from a cabinet minister and Gordon Brown's closest ally in the Treasury over the past 10 years.
"We are being told that not only we are facing the worst recession in 100 years, but that it will last for over a decade - far longer than Treasury forecasts predict."
The Commons Treasury select committee is due to question the bosses and former bosses of the UK's biggest banks on Tuesday and Wednesday over the causes of the financial crisis.
Last week, Mr Brown used the word "depression" during prime minister's questions, but his spokesman later said this had been a slip of the tongue. The Conservatives urged him to clarify his comments and be careful with language.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7880189.stm

Heyman_2

I'm afraid I just can't take someone called 'Ed Balls' seriously.

zarazara

I've just read this on the BBC site. Apocalypse Now springs to mind.

Wookster

At last Ed Balls talks frankly.

No doubt there will be a 'clarification' (read retraction) in the press tomorrow.

StevieJ

Who said our Darling had no Balls

Bf109

Heyman wrote: »

I'm afraid I just can't take someone called 'Ed Balls' seriously.

How very dare you not take this chap seriously!

Bf109

Dont know what he is doing to Ken's balls here though...

Cannon_Fodder

Fancy that, some newbie trying to stir up trouble by mentioning names...

Big surprise.

No-one got the BALLS to own up ?

amcluesent

Wasn't the despised Clown trying one of his usual cheap smears about the Tory's 'talking down' Britain? So now we've had Darling say worst times for 60 years and Balls says worst for 100 years. Now that's talking down the economy...and they will know having seen "the books" after 10 catastrophic years of tax'n'bungle by Clown!

#Things can only get better...#

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Grrr this made me angry - talk about fear-mongering!!!

Silly man. Hey, let's all us politicians see if we can out-do each other with overdramatic rhetoric about how bad the economy may or may not get. That sounds like a constructive passtime...Balls indeed.

oldMcDonald

Is it possible that this has been said for a reason? Maybe there is some new bailout on the way that may not be popular with the public? Talking about the 1930s and Browns use of the word 'depression' last week may be putting the fear of God into people so the new bailout (or whatever) is seen as the lesser of two evils?

Maybe it is all true and we are looking at the mother of all depressions charging towards us? I don't know. I think I would rather wait a few days before I have an opinion on this. Give time for the spin machine of Labour to either make excuses as to what Balls 'really' meant (which would lead me to believe he actually meant what he said), or to announce some new measure that has had the ground laid for it by this comment.