Balls by name…

I’m not sure what I can say really. Anyone who has encountered Ed Balls’ in the past few weeks upon their television screen or on the radio air waves will be shocked by one thing – this man genuinely believes he can be the next leader of the Labour party and in turn the next Prime Minister of this country.

I know. Insane.

Last night whilst watching the interested ‘Five Days That Changed Britain’ – which can still be seen on the BBC iplayer service (for another seven days) it was clear to me that everyone who took part spoke openly and honestly except one man – Mr Ed Balls.

He used his talking head appearances to bash Nick Clegg over the head. Everything was a snide remark aimed at the leader of the Lib Dems and the Deputy Prime Minister. It was like a personal vendetta that he wanted out there. He blamed Nick Clegg solely for Gordon Brown not being PM any more. It had nothing to do with anyone else, it was Nick’s fault.

The actual issue turned out quite simply that Nick Clegg felt he couldn’t prop up a Prime Minister who hadn’t been elected in the first place and then during his first election campaign lost. He felt that there was a future with a Lib-Lab deal (although the numbers wouldn’t have made it easy) but that future could not involve PM Brown and the then PM just wouldn’t let it go. It was Brown as PM or no-one in the Labour party, an act that might be seen by Labourites as selfish. The keys to #10 were there for the Labour party but in a straight choice between himself and his party – Brown chose himself.

Back to Ed Balls. He was the closest to PM Brown and has a legitimate chance of winning the leadership contest even though the Miliband brothers are the favourites. His performance on Question Time after the election showed that he wasn’t living in the real world. Circumstances had changed and the events in Greece in the week running up to the General Election changed everything.

The deficit needed cutting and it needed cutting now. If a country in the Euro Zone could be in the brink of bankruptcy then any country could go. As the country with the largest deficit in the EU, clearly the UK would’ve been next had the World’s money leaders sniffed that we couldn’t actually pay back the money.

I see people saying that these cuts are brutal and it is going to far. If you lose your job and have a mortgage to pay do you keep spending the same amount each month on things that aren’t bare essentials? Do you cancel up your Sky subscription? Does the gym membership go out of the window? Are nights out on the town cut back on? Of course you do and for the country it is no different.

Yes I like the idea of free swimming for all kids and OAPs but at this current juncture we simply can’t afford it. I love the idea of kids getting excellent buildings to learn in but is that sustainable at the moment? No it’s not. Hard decisions have to be made to show the people who have lent us money that we are cutting our spending and we will be able to pay them back in time. If we don’t these debts are called in now and frankly we don’t have the money to pay for it and then we are all screwed.

On Question Time after the election, Ed Balls still said that he would spend our way out of debt by investing in public services and jobs, which is good in one way but all that means is we get into more debt and at some point you have to cut your losses and tighten your belt.

Sadly that is the situation we find ourselves in (thank you financial sector) but that is the real world. I live in it, you live in it, everyone lives in it except Ed Balls. If he becomes Labour leader then it is a slam dun that they’ll still be forming the opposition comes the autumn of 2015, you can bet your bottom dollar on it.

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