'Blinky' Balls, the shadow Minister for Mischief, has shocked the world, well, what passes for 'the world' in Westminster circles, by a blatant disregard for convention and tradition and his own previous political example by actually, um, telling the truth! I know, I know, it's shockin', I mean, how can you place your trust in a man who lies through his teeth for years and then does something like that? Late last night he announced that, despite what he had said over and over again for the last two years, actually he wouldn't change a thing that the Chancellor had done and certainly would not allow public sector wages to rise. He could get a job on the next Bond film as a stunt driver because I can't remember seeing a better, faster, hand-brake u-turn than that for some years. The end result is that no-one, certainly no-one who is minded to support the Labour party, will ever take him seriously again. (How the quiet, careful and canny Alistair Darling, the last Labour Chancellor, must be smiling to himself.)
Anyway, now is the time for a ruthlessly intelligent Tory prime minister to strike by calling an election for the early Spring. At a stroke (to quote a phrase), he will rid himself of the il-Lib-non-Dems who will be reduced to a tiny insignificant piece of political detritus - which is what they deserve. Labour, already saddled with a leader who looks and sounds like the dopiest teenager in Britain, and a shadow Chancellor who eats his own words for breakfast, will be well and truly thumped. Dave has all the excuses anyone could need - the looming implosion of the euro-zone, the increasingly stroppy attitude of the ratings agencies, the need for a unified approach to Brussels, and so on.
It's a nice thought but, alas, there is one crucial thing missing - a ruthlessly intelligent Tory prime minister. Ah well, a man can dream, can't he?
ADDITIONAL: I have just read Guido and he tells us that 'Blinky' is going to make his about-turn speech this morning to the Fabian Society. Unfortunately, he gave an interview just a few weeks back to the Fabians for their magazine which, because of printing schedules, is going to be published today. Thus we will be able to relish the 'before' and 'after' Blinky Balls:
Then: “Nobody in the Labour Party should get into the idea that it has to be this way”.
Now: “My starting point is, I am afraid, we are going to have keep all these cuts.”
"Oh what a tangled web we weave" . . . and all that jazz!
Perhaps Blinky, and his lovely wife Pixie, would now like to come clean about their expenses claims, whereby they classified the very expensive house they lived in in London as a expenses-gathering second home, while classifying their cheap gaff oop North as their first home - carrying this off while both being Govt ministers and sending their children to school in London.
How about a refund for the hard-pressed tax-payer, then, you pair?
Posted by: dearieme | Saturday, 14 January 2012 at 11:08
Don't hold your breath, DM!
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 14 January 2012 at 11:50