He is trying to have it both ways, is that an improvement on getting it completely wrong? On the doorstep the “Osborne’s policy failure means we’re going to have do the same” is going to fall apart. As for crony capitalism, who was in favour of it? The party of Hindujas, Ecclestone, “we must do something for Branson, Tony”, Paul  Myners and Loans for Lordships is now against cronyism…

Via LiarPoliticians

Ed Balls told the Fabians that one of his most precious material belongings is a first edition of a Keynes pamphlet, “The Economic Consequences of Mr Churchill”. Keynesianism is the chosen intellectual mantle that Balls is trying to use with the Labour base to justify pivoting towards the voters and away from union demands for ever more deficit spending and borrowing. Already the Labour left are screaming “sell-out“.

Earlier this year Vince Cable argued that Keynes would not support the demands of latter day über-Keynesians. Cable reminds us that the politicisation of Keynes as a heavy spender is misplaced because Keynes was a liberal, not a socialist and he was writing at a time when the level of state spending in the economy amounted to half of today’s level. Keynes was not a friend of socialism, his policies were intended to save capitalism. Would Keynes have believed government deficit spending at twice the share of GDP as in the 1930s was desirable or sustainable? Cable thinks not, does Balls?

The proof will be in the policy pudding, Labour politicians reflexively oppose every reduction in welfare spending, they are conditioned to do no other. Even when senior Labour politicians know it is electorally toxic, for example opposing the £26,000 housing benefit cap, the “progressive” logic of maximum welfarism that grips their activists brooks no reason. Ed Balls can’t command credibility until he accepts that the deficit is a problem that has to be addressed rather than just acknowledged in theory. In interviews he now says vaguely that he wants to bring down the deficit, yet he is on the record during the Labour leadership election, where he ran from the left, as opposing even Alistair Darling’s modest deficit reduction proposals. Balls ideologically opposes as “too fast, too far” spending restraint by the Coalition. It is hard to believe that Balls isn’t now repositioning towards the centre again for purely electoral reasons, rather than some Damascene rejection of deficit denial.

730 days ago the Labour Party were secretly flapping about their leader, but publicly grinning, all be it with guns to their head:

If Guido recalls correctly, Gordon’s “relaunch” a few days later was a spectacular success.

Just a bit more gunpowder…

The UN gives the North Korean dictator an honour not given to the Czech democrat. No such memorial for the two million enslaved citizens he killed…

UPDATE: Amnesty video of the North Korean labour camps which make up the hidden gulag.

A real time poll conducted for this website during Piers Morgan’s witness interview in front of Lord Justice Leveson  found 96% didn’t believe him, 3% did and 1% didn’t know. Piers squirmed and squirmed throughout. Crucially he refused to explain how he came to be listening to the voicemails of Paul McCartney to his wife, citing source protection. Guido suspects that if Heather Mills or Sir Paul wanted to, they could make life very difficult for Morgan. There is no public interest defence for hacking celebs.

He claimed that it was not unethical to listen to the tapes and insisted ”I am not going to discuss where I heard it or who played it to me”, on the grounds that “I am not going to do anything that may identify the source.”

Morgan finished his evidence with the  ”Je suis un rock star” claim that he was like a rock star having the worst songs picked from his back catalogue. Some front…

Not a vintage Farage rant, but worth watching for the smiles and grins of the EU elite. They call that gallows humour…

Guido isn’t quite sure what to make of Jacqui Smith throwing some shapes…

Dave “What is on offer isn’t in Britain’s interests, so I didn’t agree to it. “

Guido can’t think why the Tories decided to pull IDS from the Daily Politics today. He’s said to be fuming, particularly at Ken Clarke, and made said fury perfectly clear over the phone to him this morning. Owen Paterson has been stirring things up too. Either way it was the Pilgrims™ section of the show that Guido particularly enjoyed:

Leaving aside her terrible attempt at justifying the practice of full-time taxpayer-funded trade union officials, Reeves had the cheek to try and claim that she was not funded by Unite the Union. She acknowledged that they gave her Leeds West Constituency money (£1,500 in May 2009 and another £1,500 in the April before the election), but she categorically denied she had received money directly from Unite:

“I don’t get any money from a trade union…”

In November 2007, two months after being selected as Labour’s candidate for Leeds West, Rachel Reeves declared a donation from Unite of £1,979.50 to the Electoral Commission. Donation Ref. No. C0002459 was paid directly to one Ms Rachel Reeves.