After a shocker of an interview with Eddie Mair on Wednesday, in which Ed Balls was unable to give an answer to where he had differed from Gordon Brown in terms of policy over the last three years, his Mirror piece today shows just how tainted he is. He tries to admit, like all the others, that now they see that they lost and that they need to listen more, not that they weren’t listening before of course. This seems to be the only message of the whole contest so far.
Most interesting was what he didn’t say. There is not one mention of the deficit in the whole piece. Instead he uses cheap shots of the sort that Brown was churning out in his lowest days:
“And then on Monday, I watched George Osborne on TV struggling to contain his glee as he announced that the Tories, now backed by the Liberal Democrats, were going to cut £6billion from public services this year and put the school-building programme on hold.”
No wonder he is struggling to get the signatures to even get on the ballot. Many of the new Labour intake are holding back their support, waiting to see who else comes out of the woodwork. How long before it all gets rather nasty as Balls fights for his life?
Rachel Sylvester writes…
‘Alastair Campbell used to refer Mr Blair, Mr Brown and Lord Mandelson as the “three poofs”.’
Bild, Germany’s best selling newspaper writes…
“Once again, we are the idiots of Europe”
British Airways have reported a staggering £531 million loss this morning. Grounded by volcanoes and union thugs, things aren’t going too well for the old flag carrier. Add all that to the £400 odd million loss last year. Whelan and co at Unite the Union are still determined to push things further.
Despite being paid way above the industry average, BA cabin crew, fired up by Derek Simpson and Tony Woodly’s egos, are set for a crippling fifteen days of strike action. Though BA apparently have some £1.7 billion in the bank, they are set to be hit by a further £100 million loss from the ash and the industrial dispute looks like it will rattle on. You would be mad to book a BA flight in advance this summer – Will Unite be happy when they bring the company to its knees and end up far from well paid, but in fact at the back of the dole queue?
Further to yesterday’s exposure of the cosy relationship the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Defence Gerald Howarth has with the arms lobbying industry, it seems things get even murkier. Howarth gave Michael Wood of lobbyists Whitehall Advisers (whose clients included BAE Systems and Airbus) free reign of the Parliamentary estate in 2004. However it seems Mr Wood was not the only pass-holder sponsored by Howarth to be end up in defence lobbying:
Jefferson Communications spin for missile makers MBDA. So Gerald, when did you last talk to Clark?
