Friday 6 July 2012

Balls V Osborne

I watched the Banking regulation debate yesterday.

I've watched a lot of "debates". Watched literally hundreds of parliamentarians stand at the despatch box by now.

I have never seen a better performance than Ed Balls gave yesterday. As Louis Walsh might say, "He owned  the stage"

We can descend into a bit of partisan point scoring, but there's just no denying he was masterful. He controlled the House like a conductor, riding the cat calls and jeers with humour and confidence, his oration soaring and swooping from loud and commanding to quiet and dripping with authority.

Most interestingly, when they jokes and jibes settled down and he spoke seriously, the entire House fell silent in a way I've rarely seen before.

As he leant on his arm, his hair swept across, he actually reminded me of that other great orator who held the House in the palm of his hand. Both he and Nye Bevan overcame stutters to create such magic in parliament.

When he warned that the Government were making a grave mistake, he held Osborne's eye, spoke quietly and again the House fell silent.

By the time Osborne stood up, he must have felt bruised. His pip-squeaky voice and unruly quiff gave the air of Little Lord Fauntleroy, a 6th form debater so out of his depth, it may have been better for all if he'd just wandered off and found William Hague.

He had only one thing to say ; "They started it Miss!" - over and over in a playground loop, nothing to say, nothing to add, no way forward, no panache, no charm, no charisma, no confidence. Just a little-boy-lost on the world's stage.

I've seen right wing commentators write articles on how partisan and lowly the debate was. Well no, your man was just an embarrassment. This boy-child is our Chancellor! He is the man tasked with getting us out of the worst financial crisis in living memory. HE is the one who needs to persuade, to charm, to cajole and to inspire.

On yesterday's evidence he simply is not up to the job. Not in any way at all.

But this interested me : When they all trooped back after the vote, Osborne was a changed man. He seemed weak with relief, quieter, conciliatory. Even smaller and more insignificant - if that were even possible. Immediately, his aides started to brief the BBC's Nick Robinson that, no, in fact, he withdraw accusations that Balls had been involved in the Libor fixing scandal.

It was clear that this vote had been much, much, more important to him than us mere mortals could know. I wonder who had made George so determined to avoid a judge led enquiry that he would mislead the House repeatedly to discredit his opposite number, only to withdraw the accusations as soon as the vote had passed?

How desperate must he have been to flirt with a libel case to make his oh-so-shabby and pointless case?

This man is our Chancellor - one of the most powerful men in the world. The Conservative Party should be deeply ashamed by both his performance and his character after yesterday's debate. For all our sakes,  they should find a politician who could actually manage the job. And they should do it fast. He holds all of our futures in his slippery hands.




23 comments:

  1. Ed Balls was very inspiring yesterday.

    I read there might be a shadow cabinet reshuffle, but I hope this is nothing more than a rumour, and if it is true I hope Ed Miliband has the vision to keep Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor.

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  2. I certainly accept the points illustrated in the main article above, and the fact that Osborne is unfit for purpose as the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, but on this point -

    "How desperate must he have been to flirt with a libel case to make his oh-so-shabby and pointless case?"

    I'm fairly certain the law of libel doesn't apply within the walls of Parliament and therefore, unfortunately, Tory sociopath Osborne cannot be officially charged by Police for such a deliberately damaging statement.

    There may well be a complaints procedure MP's can follow instead, but I'm even more unsure of that!
    Perhaps some kind and knowledgeable person would post a reply to this post and clarify this insignificant issue please?

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    1. The slur against Ed Balls was made in the Independent Newspaper therefore libel would apply Ed was asking the pillock of a chancellor to withdraw the accusation.
      Other than that having watched the Bob Diamond grilling by the select committee it seemed to me that is not the best way to get at the true facts. The financial wheeling and dealing is so complex that it needs true experts in the field plus forensic questioning by top QCs to unearth the sleaze that I suspect is lurking just below the surface. Too many "friends" of the tory party have their snouts in the trough for a government dominated committee to be seen as impartial imo.

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  3. Really? I can't stand Osborne but I thought he had Ed Balls over a barrel yesterday and I get the distinct impression that Balls is bricking it about the forthcoming parliamentary inquiry.

    While I'm here, just want to say thanks for a great blog. I'm a regular reader - don't always agree with everything you say but always find it stimulating and illuminating. Keep up the good work!

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  4. Osborne's accusation was made in The Spectator (the home of contempt of court) and not covered by Parliamentary privilege unless - I think - they were reporting something said in the House. It was possible that Ed Balls could have started a libel action against Osborne. Balls clearly thought the political gains would be bigger if he didn't than if he sought to claim damage to his reputation in court.

    I was amazed when I read it.

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  5. The possible libel referred to was because of an article in The Spectator where Osborne in an interview said ""As for the role of the Labour government and the people around Gordon Brown - well I think there are questions to be asked of them. They were clearly involved and we just haven't heard the full facts, I don't think, of who knew what when."

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  6. how i laughed when the attorney general waded in and got up for a second time digging an even bigger whole. i expected him to flinch in pain at any moment as george frogspawn, or danny salamander, stated kicking him to get him to shut up .everyone wants a judge led enquiry. all apart from the condom party that is. what a cacophony of spineless slug standard political sycophantic dross the lib dummies are. to agree with the nasty party, they are the enemy of the people. they dont give a dam about any one els other then there aspirations as a future force on the political stage .they are a sell out party, not only on this critical banking vote, but also on the welfare bill. i wonder what they wanted in return for this vote? any ones guess. steve.

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    1. I don't want a judge led inquiry - I want arrests and time in court and prison for the lot of them. Remember what these thieves have done - and not just nick a bottle of water from a london shop and be sent to gaol for 6 months....FFS

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  7. Well i watched it and i didnt see it exactly that way.There may well be some truth in it that labour knew what was going on when they were in power and i think both sides knew that which is why osbourne ranted like he did.Now Balls may have had the better day here but remember him and his wife Cooper woman are the architects of esa via atos so we should set no faith in them.They are as we all know All the bloody same..
    As for the banking scandal itself well it is not a scandal it is much more organised than that as Max Kieser has been saying for years and is now proved right and if you saw his appearance on the ten oclock show from some time ago where David Mitchell and some other fat headed bloke berated him for his views in such a way as to call him delusional almost well mitchell should do what osbourne should do and that is stfu and just leave the arena as we now KNOW they fixed it all to thier advantage and we get to pay the price.I mean come on how many bleedin times do we have to bail these robbers out before Inspector Knacker calls in the squad and gets round there to nick em all.
    To right we dont want a judicial enquiry...get em arrested and charged the lot of em.
    The thing here is this banking crisis is far from over as Max and his guest are saying..forget about greece its france we need to worry about as there banks debts could be more than the countrys entire gdp...then it all falls down and we are in the pit.
    When people like Max are proved right then you just KNOW its bigger than what they want us to believe..This govt is crapping itself in case we really find out the truth and get angry and boot them out but the only way to solve it all is do just that and start again with a fully regulated banking system with no more casino style banking and huge payouts for losing OUR money...dont we get it yet..its OUR money....they work for us really as do the politicians isnt it about bloody time we made sure they know that...

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  8. The thing is that most of what's led to the banking 'crisis' can only have happened on Labour's watch. So I certainly wouldn't be looking to Balls as the voice of integrity in all of this - he'll likely come out of an inquiry looking a lot more culpable than Osborne.

    The problem for the rest of us is who do we turn to? The Lib Dems are beyond hopeless. The Tories are ... the Tories. And Labour is still up to its neck in the effluent of their 13 year stint in government. Where do we turn?

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    1. so not a labour man then jalapeno...yes it was happening on labours watch but think back to the blue witch and it was happening then so blame who you want but it aint the fault of Balls.
      There is nowhere to turn and the bankers know this..the fsa is useless as is the sfo and they are govt funded so they aint going to chase too hard now are they so in the end it doesnt matter who let it happen .....we are all robbed and will continue to be until we get rid of em all and start again....will this happen er you have more chance of robberbob giving us all our money back...

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  10. you can say as you please in the house with immunity and if a compliant is made against you all you then need do is to apologize and that is all

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  11. Poor old Gideon got himself in a pickle again, sadly the thing the man well his whole party really fails to understand is cutting this and selling that is fine in the short term but in the long term this country will end up having nothing left.

    I suppose many people would struggle to trust a man with a name like balls but not me as we are on a road to hell might as well gives someone else control of the bus.

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  12. Bob its not fine in the short term how the hell can you think that..there is NO such thing as a short term cut.When its cut its gone for good and we are being spoon fed a load of rubbish by gideon and co.

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  13. The problem with Gideon and this goes for David Cameron also is in that they don't know the art of trading neither do the select committee and is not understood by many hence it's very difficult to engage in a conversation when you haven't a clue on what your talking about

    It is not easily learned either irrespective on how much you wish to learn it it's a bit like chess you make a move and someone somewhere will follow suit but the art here is the end game as it's the end of the day's trading that matters and not the in-between time frame

    You need to be able to understand the worlds markets and all of the commodities that make up the market and how the rest of the world value your personal expertise as other traders from across the world will be looking at those that are trusted with their judgement before all else

    It only takes one bad trader to bring about a risk factor and likewise it takes only one trader to notice that and make good the error

    what has been happening over the years is that errors have not been corrected and the public have also not picked up on these errors even thou in their thousands have been victims like in the mis selling of pip's and those sold endowments which were never going to pay out on maturity so the public in going forward are going to be much more active with their finances so that when mistakes are made of a serious nature instead of going to programs like watch dog they in future make contact with the bank of england in where i use to work and file their concerns there as that is now the correct procedure

    In the past you went to the FSA but with regret they failed the public the bank of england are much more thorough and are much less likely to make errors

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  14. “I’M UNEMPLOYED/POOR/ILL/DISABLED”

    The current bewilderingly vicious assault on the sick and vulnerable being mounted by the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition must surely rank as one of the most evil acts ever perpetrated by a British government against its own people. When even the Daily Mail is horrified at the scale and brutality of the attacks on the weakest in society, it’s surely beyond rational debate that the policy is wrong.

    http://wingsland.podgamer.com/the-wrong-lizards/

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  15. Despite the fall out from Barclay's this week, George Osborne is still in favour of BIG BONUSES for BAnkers!!!

    http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/george-osborne-fight-bankers-bonuses-061607373.html

    No change there then

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  16. if thees greedy fraudulent bankers are ever brought to justice and are sent to prison, it is not the same for the bourgeoise criminal, for instance, drink a bottle of water that has been stolen in the london riots and get banged up in brixton prison ,shut away for 23 hours a day, one visit for an hour once a month. or if like ernest sawnders ,you are the chairman of guinness, and fraudulently ripped millions off you go to an open prison for 18 months .but it does not stop there ,you keep all of the money you stole then you call in your private medical team who then pronounce him with dementia and is released on compassionate grounds. he then goes on to confound the medical profession as the only person on earth with this condition for it to miraculously revers its self. or frank shannon chief accountant for nissan uk under the last nasty regime, he pockets 40million in a vat fraud. he is then sent to ford prison where he was sentenced to thee years and made to pay back 5 million, leaving poor old frank with 35 million, a golf course in hove, and one in flordia ,and a penthouse sussex heights, in brighton. two of his other co conspirators were sent to another open prison, where one left ones car in the car park and drove to there fictitious jobs and drove back to the prison at night, then went home at week ends whilst bottnor, the head honcho, retired to live out his life spending his 800 million in switzerland. tho george frogspawn, is now sticking up for the crooked bankers and the enquiry has not began yet . i think ca moron, meant we are all in this together , tho some more then others steve.

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  17. It is labours fault we are in this mess, just like its labours fault that atos was let lose to attack disable people.

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    1. labour did contract atos that is a fact and a mistake and whilst milliband is constructing new new labour, he should come out and put the sick and disabled at ease. as what has been started by labour as cruel unfair and nasty and for me to vote for labour again, there has to be a complete re think .tho what was started by labour, the condom party has taken to new heights of perverse disregard for the most challenged in our society .politicians of the main parties and i mean all of them. it is as if they have taken out the compassionate humility that rely should be a given when dealing with someone who may be ill sick or poorly call it what you will ,and have and abused this community and have throne us to one side like an old sock and no one cares. we dont make the news because we are not news worthy, apart from the para olympics which will be shown on a minor channel .we as disabled people are being wronged by society and it seems no party of any persuasion is championing us, it is like our votes have been factored in and our issues dont count for alot in the grand scheme of things. steve .

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  18. You are clearly all welfare state roulette banking fans gordon caused the problems covered them up and lied non stop surely he is the criminal due to ruining the economy not Osborne for suggesting with the very close links to the banks and genorous and shambolic bail out that perhaps labour knew of these indiscretions

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  19. gary ,i dont think there is a lot of difference between the main parties .they all seem to be as bad as one another. when you oppress a section of society ,spreading prejudice and lies with a result of causing harm and in some cases the major contributing factor in the deaths of some people, if you stand by and do or say nothing when you are in a position as part of the job you were elected to do as an opposition member, it only leave the position of complicity. the silence is deafening. steve. i do hope sue is ok? as i have not seen her on hear i am starting to worry.

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