'Ed Balls is a perfectly decent man (shock horror)' blog discussion

Moby

As many of the above replies indicate....the line you take on Ed Balls will depend on your own political bias! I'm Labour through and through so I'll be rooting for him in his new role to challenge the unbelievable statement from the Tories that 'we are all in this together'!

pawnbroker_2

Did you ask him why he and Brown decided to destroy the pensions industry by taxation ?

Balls in my view is just another politician who has never had aproper job and is filling his bank account with our money.

Orrin

Ed Balls loves the rough and tumble of politics far too much in my opinion.

After he retained his seat at the general election you could see that he was barely able to contain his glee. He was obviously tired and had been under a lot of pressure but when interviewed after the results he was sneering and triumphalist and all he seemed to care about was that he'd put one over on the other lot.

He did it again recently when Alan Johnson resigned; telling the cameras with a big grin on his face how sorry he was to see Johnson go.

He's a professional politician through and through and I can't stand the man.

roddydogs

Remind us again, how much "Expenses" did him and his missus claim?

the_harrys

I would rather that MSE stuck to policy rather than try to influence our view of individual politicians according to your own personal bias!

FWIW He comes across to me as insincere, somewhat manipulative and untrustworthy, as his and his wife's actions have shown.

However I do support your financial education campaign.

matty_yorks

Allegations over allowances
In September 2007, with his wife Yvette Cooper, he was accused of "breaking the spirit of Commons rules" by using MPs' allowances to help pay for a £655,000 home in north London.[22] Balls and his wife bought a four-bed house in Stoke Newington, north London, and registered this as their second home (rather than their home in Castleford, West Yorkshire) in order to qualify for up to £44,000 a year to subsidise a reported £438,000 mortgage under the Commons Additional Costs Allowance, of which they claimed £24,400. This is despite both spouses working in London full-time and their children attending local London schools. Through a spokesman, Balls and Cooper asserted that "The whole family travel between their Yorkshire home and London each week when Parliament is sitting. As they are all in London during the week, their children have always attended the nearest school to their London house."
Additional allegations have been made about Balls' and his wife's "flipping" of their second home three times within the space of two years.[23]

And you trust this guy to be honest with the country's finances?!

Martin, I'm bl**dy disappointed in you.

MSE_Martin

the_harrys wrote: »

I would rather that MSE stuck to policy rather than try to influence our view of individual politicians according to your own personal bias!

FWIW He comes across to me as insincere, somewhat manipulative and untrustworthy, as his and his wife's actions have shown.

However I do support your financial education campaign.

Hi Harry

My point of this blog is not to persuade anyone to vote anyway - I try to remain studiously neutral on that fact.

However I do think politicians have become the kicking classes - that many beleive they're all bad eggs (often apart from their own MP who people tend to think does good, I always find that fascinating). I do have a bee in my bonnet about this, that as long as it continues we put off many going into politics and we all suffer because of it.

Ed Balls was an example for me, of someone absolutely attacked all over the place, but who in real life was pleasant to deal with (this isnt about policy its about personal) even though he's meant to be a political thug. I would happily argue against his policies, but its thepersonal side of all this I dont like.

Martin

Jennifer_Jane

I am retired and spend quite a long time each day with Parliament Live on as a default TV channel. What I see is Politicians - particularly from the Labour front benches - demonising their opponents. When someone like Andy Burnham sneers in Parliament at an article that Mrs Gove (unsure if this is Michael Gove's wife or mother?) wrote, then that is just slimy.

It's the politicians themselves who have instigated these personal attacks.

When you see Alistair Campbell (I know he's not an actual politician, but he is political) shouting down Simon Hughes on Questiontime about the closure of a local maternity ward ("But are you going to be opening the maternity ward") when it was actually closed by Labour, then it's unethical and self-serving.

I cannot remember every incident, but every day I see Labour politicians passionately claiming that the Coalition is doing the wrong thing when they had undertaken to get rid of the deficit within 7 years versus the coalition's 5 years. It is clear that if Labour were in power, they would have to take very similar difficult decisions, yet they denigrate the coalition's attempt to bring the Country under some kind of fiscal control.

I am not essentially right or left wing - very much a floating voter, but the more I watch of Parliament Live and Questiontime, the more I see Labour as liars, slimy, and self-serving.

matty_yorks

Here's an (potential biased) article on the guy. I'm guessing if any of it were untrue the website would have been sued and the page taken down... Sadly it's not the only site reporting what a mendacious s&*t the man is...

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/3725688/talking-balls.thtml

MillicentBystander

Looking at the figures for the economy today, plus the general election in Scotland in a month or 3 in which the ConDems will be absolutely slaughtered, if I was Ed Balls I would be readying myself to be the new Chancellor around about Summer time. Discuss.