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The people in the Labour Party who need to shut up

August 28, 2012 7:00 am

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“We can’t go on together – with suspicious minds”

- Elvis Presley

An air of mistrust and suspicion has returned to the Labour Party – just in time for conference season. And all thanks to the anonymous mutterings of the perennial seasonal favourite – the anonymous Labour source.

Lucky us.

For those hoping that the party (and Ed Miliband) were about to get our first good run at a conference in years – don’t get your hopes up just yet, because a noise is rumbling in the bowels of the old beast – the TB/GBs.

Of course we can’t really have the TB/GBs again – both men are beyond the front line now (sort of) – so we’re told it’s returning by-proxy. Two of the so called “sons of Brown” are, we are told, at loggerheads. The EM/EBs…

Only a few months ago I argued that this was all being blown out of proportion – and perhaps that’s what we’re seeing again. But somehow, this time, I doubt it.

This all kicked off on Sunday when John Rentoul wrote an article entitled “Forget Dave and George. The real story is the two Eds”. In truth the article was more about the government than Labour (and relied upon the unproven assertion that the economy will improve and the Tories will get the credit), but rumours of an Ed on Ed row were more interesting for those of us starved of political news and intrigue. Follow up soon came in the Bank Holiday editions of the Indie and The Times (£) – and today’s Guardian seeks to keep the boulder of leadership strife rolling down the hill towards the startled Labour Party villagers in the valley below. Once this hit day three of coverage, you could tell it was the real thing, albeit one that appeared – perhaps conceived over lunch – on the quietest political weekend of the year.

But who would have started this? Many senior Labour aides (including many of those close to the Labour leader and Shadow Chancellor) are quite sensibly taking a late August break. Which of them would seek to assert that Ed Balls was too big for his boots? It was unclear whether this was an attempt at aggrandising the shadow chancellor or taking him down a peg or two.

Yet today’s briefing in the Guardian seems to be attempting something different – making both men look bad. Obstensively it’s about a poll, but neither men will care for a poll that proves that they – and all other politicians – are still getting negative ratings. This is careful and methodical character assassination. Balls is painted as a bully, whilst Ed Miliband is made to look indecisive – descriptions that the Tory Party (or Simon Heffer for that matter) would dearly love to stick.

Well done, anonymous Labour source, you really played a blinder there.

The net effect has been to increase suspicion between those surrounding the two men. That’s not to say there wasn’t suspicion before, but this weekend seems to have amplified it and brought it out into the open. If they weren’t at loggerheads already, they may well – as a result of potentially misplaced suspicion – be at loggerheads now.

The best question to ask at times like this is “Cui bono?”, meaning “who benefits?”.

Are there those in the party who are unhappy with both Balls and Miliband? Of course. In any party there are the spurned, the undermined and the overlooked. Around the shadow cabinet table and beyond there are many unhappy at Ed Balls having control over each and every policy (not that we have many of them, but anyway…). There are many with a grievance, so there are many with the motive to fit the bill.

Yet though who would seek to stoke disagreement at the top of the party only show how selfish their motives are. Despite the Olympics and the Jubilee, and a relatively quiet summer, the Tory Party are still in complete disarray, whilst the coalition is showing significant boundary shaped cracks. Clegg and Cameron will be facing “make or break” speeches at their respective conferences. And now Ed Miliband’s free ride for this year looks like a characteristically bumpy one. Whichever fool thought now was the right time to inject poison into Labour’s body politic should hang their head in shame. When your opposition is commiting hari-kari, you get out of the way, you don’t start stabbing yourself.

Maybe we are dreadful at opposition after all. Maybe we can’t unite, behave and return to power in one term. We’ve never done it before – and with this kind of attitude, you can see why. Yet this always seems to happen at the top, not the bottom.

So on behalf of Labour’s rank and file, let me say this – to all you Labour’s secret sources, “friends” of shadow cabinet members, toytown Tuckers, spin doctors and would be masters of the dark arts, a challenge – until Labour Party conference, shut up and behave, just this once…

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  • http://www.facebook.com/MichaelBater74 Michael Bater

    Can’t agree more. It is if the Party don’t want to get back in power!

    All those carping in a non-constructive manor, from the side lines, are not only destroying the Party, but also the helping to destroy the country. Because if Labour loses at the next election it will be unrecognisable by the next one. 

    • MarcusTankus

       ”Can’t agree more. It is if the Party don’t want to get back in power!”
      Might  be a good idea ….there will still be no money to spend , so how will a socialist government function ?

       ”Because if Labour loses at the next election it will be unrecognisable by the next one. ”
      Better for the country …as all the “labour” politicians who got us into this mess will have gone …and the party can start  refreshed without the baggage of incompetence in its wake.
      Then the country will have a proper alternate opposition , not just a bunch of glib spinners in M&S suits out on the make  

      • Alexwilliamz

        Oi I wear an M & S suit!!

        • http://twitter.com/waterwards dave stone

          A Lidl suit is what you need for honest-to-goodness credibility.

  • warren ward

    Miliband should act now. If he suspects, from the tiniest of hints, that Balls is playing Brown like games he should sack him immediately. The country is desperate for a united Labour Party.
    Get over it Mr Balls. You lost an excruciatingly long leadership battle overwhelmingly and fair and square. 

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001102865655 John Ruddy

      Thats assuming that a) these things are true or that b) Balls [or his supporters] are the ones leaking it.

      I suspect neither is true. 

      There is a faction within the party who would like to destabilise both Ed’s, and certainly dont like to see the “Sons of Brown” taking charge of the party…

    • http://twitter.com/johnringer John Ringer

      Yeah dude, I’m sure Ed Balls is still really broken up about losing a leadership contest that almost nobody thought he had a chance of winning. It’s not like most commentators inferred that his campaign was mainly intended to position himself to be made Shadow Chancellor.

    • Robert Castlereagh

      You fell for it
      Miliband is a star
      See the magnificent coverage he got when Mensch fell on her sword
      Equally Balls is a megastar whose main assett is that he has twice the intellect of Osbourne and has the abilty to rattle both him and Cameron.

  • Robert_Crosby

    The people in this country who need a Labour government don’t need this self-indulgent nonsense.  Balls hasn’t got a great public image and he’s not as canny a television performer as he perhaps reckons.  Then again, I suspect that there is more than a hand in this from a few who still can’t accept that “their man came second”?

  • http://twitter.com/bencobley Ben Cobley

    Strong stuff, but I think much too narrowly focused on electoral chances, polls etc. It misses a bigger picture about the direction of the party. Ed Balls and Ed Miliband clearly have pretty different ideas about where it should go.

    Balls is about central control, a relentless focus on economics, hammering the marginals in elections, ruthless efficiency and driving leadership – basically the same old thing as we’ve had before but maybe done better.

    Miliband is more interested in opening up, speading out and letting the party and wider society breathe a little and change – vaguer, but potentially offering something properly new and interesting.

    There are fundamental differences here that we are going to have to address sooner or later, and it would surely be better to do it now than a year before an election. Aviation policy sits right on the dividing line: do we continue to lay concrete over our land in search of more economic growth, or are we going to start considering quality of life and the sort of society we want to live in?

    The lobbying is so intense on such issues that they are not going to go away, and with that the schisms will surely open up further unless addressed.

    • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

      To be honest I don’t see why both approaches have to be so mutually exclusive. Balls can be the ‘Economy Man’ but Ed can talk about what kind of society we want, reshaping the state, engaging with people, communities et cetera. I think on a purely economic note, that we should go back to our policy on Heathrow but there is an argument for the party just compromising on using RAF Northolt and having a Heathwick line instead. Thames Estuary should be avoided.

  • http://twitter.com/GuidoFawkes Guido Fawkes

    Shoot the messenger?

    • markfergusonuk

      That depends on who the messenger is – and how accurate the message…and whether this is a message someone who works for / is a senior member of the Labour Party should really be disseminating.

      • http://twitter.com/johnringer John Ringer

        Welcome to the LabourList comments section, where Mark Ferguson’s comments get fewer ‘likes’ than Guido Fawkes’s.

        • markfergusonuk

          It’s a strange old place

          • PeterBarnard

            I’ve just made it 13-13.

            Can I have my Labour List mug now, please?

          • Brumanuensis

            Only the chosen few get the LabourList mug Peter. You must complete the Eight* Labours of, erm, Ferguson.

            The slaying of the Essex Lion

            The silencing of the fearsome Hodges – he who grows a new excuse with every failed prediction

            The extrication of the Freedom of Information request out of Andrew Lansley

            The taming of the ferocious Guido – drink helps, so I hear.

            The cleaning of the Augean Stables of Party funding

            The hunting of the Guardian columnists – whose columns are highly toxic to Party unity

            The trapping of the Eton Bull

            And finally, descending into Hades in order to get Paul Dare to admit that yes, there is such a thing as a legitimate asylum seeker

            Good luck.

            *There were originally Twelve, but the others have been lost in the mists of time. Or some such thing.

          • jaime taurosangastre candelas

            Perhaps a proper test would be to propose some policies that go beyond attacking the tories without offering any “meat” for consideration, and actually address the challenge of being notably Labour (ie the Lib Dems and tories would never dream of them), realistic in electoral terms, affordable and implementable.

            That seems difficult, but it is unfair to burden Peter with that expectation (even though I honestly believe Peter is entirely credible and represents the electable wing of the Labour Party).

          • Brumanuensis

            That may be Jaime, but I was being facetious.

          • PeterBarnard

            Thank the Lord above for that, Brumanuensis …

            I’ve only got two policies : (i) full employment, and (ii) a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

            It’s getting there where the difficulties lie …

          • Brumanuensis

            I think a donation might get you the mug,

            I’d add equality to the list, but yours is a good base.

          • Brumanuensis

            I think a donation might get you the mug,

            I’d add equality to the list, but yours is a good base.

        • Serbitar

          If you’re not logged on you can vote, repeatedly, to “like” any and all comments including your own. This being the case I really don’t see the point of “like” votes for any comments.

          • Serbitar

            … just to prove my point I’ve “liked” my comment above a dozen times…

        • telemachus

          not now

    • Robert Castlereagh

      Guido speak with forked tongue
      A noted proponent of divide and rule
      Your lot have got it so wrong

      • telemachus

        I trust you mean Guido.
        Guido speak(s) as the Mouthpiece of the Sun in its Kelvin MacKenzie days

        • http://twitter.com/GuidoFawkes Guido Fawkes

          You make that sound like it is a bad thing.

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/JP42QNYATVR2UKDJIUXUEV6RNY Michael

      Yes, and we all know who the messengers are, political journalists who are mainly ex public schoolboys and supporters of the Tory party. 

  • CS_Clark

    I don’t care how united you are, you’re never going to get rid of the occasional wee tosser who wants to be treated as if they’re important and enjoys being flattered by hacks. Don’t get carried away, eh? Adrenaline junkies don’t help either.

  • Billy Blofeld

    Who benefits?  David Miliband.

    • John_Dore

      Lets hope so.

      • AlanGiles

         So you don’t want unity – you want David Miliband to become leader, despite all the deep divisions such a move would open up again?. At least Ed Miliband wasn’t an expenses fiddler.

        • Robert_Crosby

          I agree with both points.

        • John_Dore

          You vote green, At least I’m loyal in the confines of the polling booth, whatever my preference for leader. Moreover I always stand up for Ed despite having real concerns as to whether he can get a majority.

          My feeling is that DM will probably succeed EM  over time and will probably win. Its just an opinion. 

          • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

            Your wrong. David should have listened to his mates in 2009 and got rid of Gordon Brown. Ed will win a majority at the next election now that he is carrying forward the agenda that David would have delivered and has got a lot of momentum especially the progress he has made. Even John Rentoul who has been an Ed Miliband-sceptic has rightly praised him at times, even Dan Hodges has been a lot nicer to Ed. David can come back but he won’t lead the party. If Alan Giles is a Green why is he continuing to try and influence or tell Labour what to do seen as he is irrelevant to the party? I hate it when Greens do that.

          • AlanGiles

             Mr Dore. Unlike some people – including some not even old enough to vote, but still hold forth with their amateur psychology on LL, I voted Green because Labour had been extremely disloyal to the very people it is supposed to help: it implemented Tory David Freud’s welfare “reforms” which caused great distress to the sick and disabled. Even though the minister resposible,  James Purnell, left Parliament barely a year later, after having been caught out in the expenses scandal (as was his sidekick Tony mcNulty).

            I agree with loyalty, but there comes a point when you can’t keep your eyes closed and hold your nose. In short, I don’t believe in my party right or wrong.

            Sorry if this upsets you (and your junior sidekick). I suspect you would like David Miliband as leader because it would be “Blair revisited”, but times have changed and “Blairism” is no longer relevant or a vote winner.

          • John_Dore

            We have welfare dependency
            We have a small group of people who freeload –  those I call the feckless.
            Thatchers regime forced people into disability benefits as a means of survival and they became trapped in the system. The UK has a disproportionate number of people on these benefits.

            Because of the above,  I 110% support welfare reform.  That is whyI have respect for people like James Purnell who was prepared to tackle the issues. It needs to be done in a considerate and proper manner.  This is just logical.

            I’m not a Blairite, I just think DM was a different choice, there is no point in this debate right now. As for Blairism, I don’t think I know what it is. Brown ran the country on the Economics side and nobody wants that back. 

          • AlanGiles

             If we have “welfare dependency” it might be due to the fact that we have high levels of unemployment, and when people do get jobs they are often short term contracts. Because of low wages being paid by many employers, even those who are not (by your lights) “feckless” (your favourite word) they are dependent on state benefits to top up their meagre wages.

            Just a pity that when Purnell brought this Tory bill into the HoC, whining that recipients were “playing the system”, he and McNulty were doing exactly the same thing – only in their cases with “expenses” and second homes allowances.

            Obviously D Miliband was “a different choice” but in order to make himself palatable to a large swathe of Labour supporters, he would have to climb down on his support for the Iraq war – if he didn’t do that he wouldn’t win and if he did, he would look somewhat hypocritical.

            As for your friend Renie, when he has been out in the real world and done a job for a few years – when he has seen what actually goes on, how people can lose their jobs through misfortune, illness, how it becomes harder to find work the older people get, how companies can go to the wall overnight, thanks to the economic climate,  then I might listen to him. Until then I will take no lectures from a 16 year old school student, who may or may not have done some part-time political work, who seems to think he knows it all.

          • John_Dore

            You are a nasty repugnant man.

          • AlanGiles

             That makes two of us then doesn’t it?

            Having a down on benefit claimants is quite repugnant as well, you know, labelling them “feckless” when you don’t know their circumstances, so don’t try taking the moral high ground.

          • John_Dore

            I can take the moral high ground. I do not label all benefit claimants feckless, read the post again. I said “We have a small group of people”. I’ll take the moral high ground as I see things rationally, unlike yourself who likes to drop your loathing of Labour MP’s past and present into every other post. This is of course interspersed with your hatred of posters here, who you disagree with.

            You’re a real nice guy….

          • John_Dore

            I can take the moral high ground. I do not label all benefit claimants feckless, read the post again. I said “We have a small group of people”. I’ll take the moral high ground as I see things rationally, unlike yourself who likes to drop your loathing of Labour MP’s past and present into every other post. This is of course interspersed with your hatred of posters here, who you disagree with.

            You’re a real nice guy….

          • John_Dore

            I can take the moral high ground. I do not label all benefit claimants feckless, read the post again. I said “We have a small group of people”. I’ll take the moral high ground as I see things rationally, unlike yourself who likes to drop your loathing of Labour MP’s past and present into every other post. This is of course interspersed with your hatred of posters here, who you disagree with.

            You’re a real nice guy….

          • AlanGiles

             So I don’t like MPs and ministers who are self-serving, hypocritical and dishonest. I am not afraid to admit it. Nor posters who pretend great knowledge with nil life experience.

            Yes I am an absolute disgrace, Mr Dore!

  • joshuafalken

    The values Labour stands for today are those which have guided it throughout its existence, namely, social justice, strong community and strong values, reward for hard work, decency, and rights matched by responsibilities.

    • http://twitter.com/amergin074 Arthur Seeley

       I agree with you wholeheartedly.
      What the party needs to do is in the short term is win Corby. That seems a very likely victory but we should be out on the streets getting voters to wake up from any complacency that ‘Labour will walk it.”  get them to give us a massive majority from a massive turn out and scare the hell out of this wretched, rudderless coalition. Send the message roaring down the corridors of Westminster and let the tide of dissent break in waves over the doorsteps of Downing Street.
      In the long term we have to address the disenchantment of the electorate that we are all the same. We are not and we should make that perfectly clear. We need to clean our own party and begin to demonstrate that we are a party imbued with honesty, integrity and a sense of duty and rid ourselves of petty back biting and secret name calling. Jon Cruddas needs to infuse our policies with the altruism that gave birth to this great party. We came into power in 1945 after a great world war and despite all the difficulties we created the Welfare State where citizens mattered. The crises we face now are no less and we must face them and solve them with same dedication and resolve that Atlee’s government showed.

  • joshuafalken

    The values Labour stands for today are those which have guided it throughout its existence, namely, social justice, strong community and strong values, reward for hard work, decency, and rights matched by responsibilities.
    Both Ed Balls and Ed Miliband as major players in those 13 years of Labour government failed to deliver even one of those core values.

    The Labour and Cooperative Grassroots need to reclaim the party from the discredited avaricious architects of our current disaster and rebuild to sustainably deliver our core caring social values.

    Ed and Ed are the problem, not the solution

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=36910622 Edward Carlsson Browne

    Where’s the evidence this is coming from within the Labour Party? You’ve got Rentoul desperately trying to sabotage the party, and you’ve got Nicholas Watts’ complete inability to read a poll and usual animus towards Labour. Neither necessarily requires somebody in the Labour Party to have been spreading rumours about the relationship of the Eds. Hacks will be hacks.

    • http://twitter.com/kb32904 KathyB

      Exactly how I feel about all this. Given the source of these pieces seems to stem from Rentoul, personally I have doubts as to the claims credibility.

      Its silly season (still zzzzzz), the govts in trouble (again) – what better diversion than a made-up story about trouble in the Labour ranks.

      That said, if anyone is saying all this from within, they really should have the courage of their convictions & say this in private to Ed M but that would be too gentlemanly wouldn’t it. I have no time for cowards.

  • sandywinder

    Have Labour any policies yet other than to oppose every cut in government spending? Had Labour been in government now how much worse off than Spain would be now? 

    • http://twitter.com/amergin074 Arthur Seeley

       I don’t know . Go on, how much worse off would we be? Have you facts and figures for your assertion dressed up as a question, please.
      Do remember that Osborne was praising the Irish ‘economic miracle’ as the example we should follow.

  • Hounam

    Even those of us who are long term supporters of Labour can have little confidence in the current leadership. They are very young, they have very little experience of the world outside their own charmed circle, they have so far been unable to articulate a coherent sense of purpose or philosophy and it would appear that serious work on policy formation has yet to begin. The party is saddled with a record in government that is not good and there is a growing sense that they, in common with other aspirants to power in western democracies, are being increasingly overwhelmed by events they can barely comprehend.

  • Liberanos

    If Ed Miliband were within a million miles of being a charismatic, decisive and powerful leader, this kind of stuff would barely surface.

    Sad.

  • http://twitter.com/jayuux jason green

    Mark, I don’t know if you noticed, but it seems that there is only one report that is being recycled. There is nothing new in any of the articles, just regurgitated  Westminster gossip and past events. The fact that John Rentoul was the first to ‘report’ this, should tell us all we need to know about the motivation for those who started it.

  • Daniel Speight

    This all kicked off on Sunday when John Rentoul wrote an article…

    Doesn’t need too much brain-work to see who would like to create some problems. Maybe that resolution on Progress needs looking at again.

    • http://twitter.com/_DaveTalbot David Talbot

      Oh God. This, again.

      • John_Dore

        All roads lead to Progress when it comes to the small minded left.

        • AlanGiles

           It might also be said all roads lead to the left when small-minded right wingers speak.

          Rentoul’s blog might as well be titled “Tony’s fanzine” – he seems to be the one true remaining fan in the serious press

          Interesting that the threatend/promised “re-engagement” by Blair during the Olympics with domestic politics didn’t happen (or if it did created such a small impact), so now Rentoul starts  this Ed versus ????? stuff again. He seems to be the Nigel Dempster of the political press – all is rumour, gossip and innuendo

          • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

            Blair’s re-engagement did happen during the Olympics when he was at the sports dinner at the Arsenal Stadium and then was appointed Olympics legacy adviser by Ed Miliband. Why are you obsessed with Tony Blair? It’s not good.

  • http://twitter.com/allanholloway Allan Draycott

    “Maybe we can’t unite, behave and return to power in one term. We’ve never done it before” 1970-74? But then Ed Miliband is no Harold Wilson, as Lloyd Bentsen might have said. 

  • http://twitter.com/NewsTweet77 NewsTweet

    this is the ‘intellectual beast’ Ed Balls who didn’t think  debt driven asset bubbles would be a problem…??!!

  • suethorney

    The people starting these rumours are obviously not suffering under this destructive coalition. They would be more interested in getting coalition out than internal party fighting. Too many people who only care about their own political ladder climbing.  We are the Labour Party and we should be caring about what this government is doing to our NHS, Education & Welfare.

  • http://twitter.com/_DaveTalbot David Talbot

    Rentoul’s article was compete rubbish, to be honest.

    The title was more interesting than the actual article itself, which, as Mark says, dealt predominantly with the Government and its current woe than the machinations at the top of the Labour party.

    The key paragraph on the Balls-Miliband axis, the third from last, contained not one substantive quote or accreditation. It simply cannot be verified. Then, funnily enough, on days two and three “senior Labour figures” come forward with quotes for the FT, Independent and Guardian.

    It is a case of these brave, anonymous sources following the lead from Rentoul, methinks. 

    • http://twitter.com/waterwards dave stone

      I thought Rentoul’s high-lighted extract was laughable: “Labour should worry that the economy will bounce back and current policy seem vindicated.”

      It seems Rentoul would like to unnerve Labour and see us timidly match the Tories discredited austerity policies. With the U.K. recovery already scuppered and southern European states teetering on the brink of a social and economic abyss (the austerity catastrophe will have them queuing up for bail-outs by this time next year) now is not the time to be swept off course by allowing ourselves to become engrossed in a personality beauty contest.

      I’m not privy to the motivations of the PLP (senior Labour figures?) nor to the schemes of handsomely-funded and grimly ambitious metropolitan dead-enders but in response to the sniping Ed should show mettle and to stick to his guns. He’s done well and there’s no reason to think he shouldn’t continue to gain momentum and assurance – it is this prospect that the distraction merchants probably find most troubling.

      • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

        Rentoul has never called for Labour to do that but we shouldn’t be complacent about the economy.  Ed should show mettle, you are right, by sticking to our policy to halve the deficit over four years which he thoroughly supports.

        • http://twitter.com/waterwards dave stone

          Sorry Renie, my post probably wasn’t as clear as I had intended – will try harder!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

    Its largely journalists who can’t get over the fact their poster boy lost. Still. 

    If party members are assisting them then they should be ashamed of themselves

    • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

      Those comments like the one you just wrote is also an example of the misbehaviour that Mark Ferguson was just writing about.

  • AlanGiles

    I’d advise  anyone in Labour – left, right or centre to take a large pich of salt with anything Rentoul writes. He is bitterley resentful that E Miliband beat D MIliband and will do or say anything to try to stir up trouble.

    Rentoul has a tiny audience (though of course articles like this spread like a bad smell), out of all proportion to his importance “political editor” of the smallest circulation Sunday newpaper.

    On his blog (which is now all but unreadable) until I gave up on it early this year he was STILL trying to justify Iraq. Nine years later……

    IF there is any truth in the story I would advise EM to ditch Balls – it hardly seems credible for him to remain as Shadow Chancellor when that is the job he was doing when Labour lost power in 2010. If he doesn’t he will look weak, and Balls is not a man who would give up on ambition.  Also, frankly I don’t think Balls is as brilliant as Balls thinks he is.

    • Robert_Crosby

      Again, I agree.  Rentoul is poison.  I can’t see why EM will have felt “forced” to give Balls the Shadow Chancellorship.  I wouldn’t have thought that Balls was in a strong position to stir as he has no discernable power base – but if there is anything in it, Miliband should dump him.

  • John_Dore

    This is the ultimate in I have my fingers in my ear and I’m not listening. At what point was Ed B anything but a scheming fellow? He was one of Browns chief bully boys and Leopards rarely go in to PX their spots.
    What you must appreciate is that Rentoul is nobodies fool and not some fawning blogger. Moreover the Guardian and Times are not going to merely repeat the Indy’s piece. No smoke with out fire as they say.

    Ed M can keep Balls close until it is expedient to jetison him.

  • John_Dore

    That was actually quite profound and one of the best statements of what the real situation is. Should we win in 2015 we wont have a clue what to do, nobody does.

    Georgy boy is screwing it up, but Balls I cant see doing any better.

  • John_Dore

    and lining their own pockets, Yeo is a disgrace.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1557475545 Jack Bonner

    Slow news day for all the papers, need something to gossip about to justify their existence. I think Essex was taking the lion’s share but that seems to have drifted off into the savannah 

  • http://twitter.com/EdDavie Edward Davie

    Calm down dear – this is a total silly season non-story

     

    • tcgriffin

      The worst coverage for Ed M does seem to coincide with the silly season. There was a sort of wave over Christmas which petered out when Parliament returned. Maybe more difficult for this kind of stuff to get traction when the omnishambles resumes, but maybe Labour should be trying to find ways to fill the news void itself and pre-empt this pattern.

  • Robert Castlereagh

    Ed Balls is an absolute asset and rolls in a different constituency.
    His PMQ antics are a joy to behold.
    We should celebrate the 2 Eds 

  • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

    John Rentoul is sort of right about the economy in the sense that we should not be complacent. The Government might have lost credibility but if there is growth by 2015 they could still try and reap the benefits because they were in Government at the time. It could salvage their electoral prospects and slightly damage ours if we don’t watch out.
    There were several leadership hustings were it was clear there was tension between the two Eds but in all honesty I don’t think the electorate cares.

  • Brumanuensis

    The Guardian story is by Nick Watt, who spent most of last December continually publishing stories suggesting Ed was about to get the chop. He also greeted Ed’s election by inventing a story about Cameron ‘punching the air with joy’.

    Ignore him. He’s just another (Ren) tool.

  • http://twitter.com/joshfg Joshua Fenton-Glynn

    Good article, too many bright young men (and they are almost always men) who are more interest in playing political games within the party than they are in mucking in and building a party and policy platform that will give the public a realy choice and option of returning a Labour government who can lead the country out of the problems we now face.

  • telemachus

    I frequently post elsewhere on the charisma of Ed Balls who is worth 10 of devalued George Osborne

  • ovaljason

    Mark

    During the TB/GBs no doubt you would have blamed the spinners. But, with the benefit of auto-biographies, we now know that the poison was real…and Tony and Gordon were responsible for every toxic drop of it.

    The same is true of EM/EBs. You don’t have the bollocks to call-out Ed and Ed for their corrosive relationship. Instead you decry those who report it.

  • ColinAdkins

    I fear it is Blairite rectivists hoping to destablise the leadership for the purposes of bringing back David as the saviour.

  • markfergusonuk

    Ed M and Ed B doesn’t in any way compare to TB/GB (yet), and I doubt it ever will get that bad.
    And please read what I wrote – I haven’t criticised those who have written the articles, I’ve criticised those who care more for their agendas than anything else.

    • postageincluded

      That’s fair, but John Rentoul is more than capable of making 2 plus 2 equal “crisis for Labour”. His source may have said very little.

  • markfergusonuk

    Very true – I wrote back in January about the need to avoid an Ed Mili vacuum

  • Alexwilliamz

    Imagine how bad the long term conservative supporters feel then!

  • Alexwilliamz

    Errmm the question is would we be any worse than the UK under a conservative government. Generally opposition parties don;t have policies mid term, there job as the name suggests is to ‘oppose’ gvt policy so that it a) has to fight its corner and justify its policies, b) hopefully flaws in policy are exposed and be modified or improved. Sadly this doesn’t seem to have always worked over the last 30 years. Sometimes it has tho.

  • Alexwilliamz

    This sort of stuff sounds almost exactly like the nonsense I often had to deal with between the girls in my year 9 tutor group. All rather sad and tedious and would be solved if journos could only quote named sources when it came to this sort of tittle tattle, it’s hardly whistle blowing major scandals is it.

  • rekrab

    You’d almost think if you’ve got a message it’s probably wrong.

    Hey! Hey! my, my, it’s better to burn out than to fade away.

  • http://twitter.com/redrenie24 Renie Anjeh

    Ed Balls has been proved right on the economy. No need to dump him.

    • Robert_Crosby

      Balls isn’t exactly alone in having predicted the failure of the Tory/LD economic policy.  If (and I say “if”) he is in any way undermining EM’s leadership, then he goes!  Chris Leslie has appeared more and more throughout the summer and is more capable in front of the cameras.

  • http://twitter.com/amergin074 Arthur Seeley

    Look if they are having a policy meeting there will be opinions that may differ from each other that is what debate is about. If someone is making a suggestion as to a policy then it is right that the cost effects of such a policy should be considered and evaluated and who better to consult but the man who you intend to be your chancellor.
    Ed Balls is admirably equipped academically to be a good knowledgeable Chancellor far far superior to the towel folder we have at the moment.
    Ed Milliband showed his growing confidence during his Budget response when Osborne and Cameron did a lot of early face pulling and chuckling asides but eventually Osborne was pinned in his seat sweating.

  • Daniel Speight

    I wonder how Rentoul will handle Blair being so publicly snubbed by Bishop Tutu.

    Blame it on Ed Miliband I suppose.

    • Brumanuensis

      I’m sure an article or tweet suggesting that Tutu is a moral pygmy next to Tony Blair, may be forthcoming.

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