Dan Hodges flouncing out of the Labour Party (again) is no surprise, though he joins a steady stream of people resigning from the people’s party. If not formally resigning they are just quietly (or not so quietly) not renewing their memberships. Exitism by high-calibre moderates is on the rise as the once entryist crypto-commies and toytown trots are welcomed into the party by Corbyn…

Former candidates, bag-carrying opposition PAds and other greasy pole climbing careerists are re-evaluating their prospects. Talk to them and they candidly say that they fully expect another decade of Tory rule. Do they want to spend their best years arguing with lobotomised lefties in CLPs or making some money in the private sector? Labour’s departure lounge is busy…

One-time leadership contender Ed Balls himself looks like he has had enough and his praetorian guard of former advisers have already made the move to the private sector. His former policy chief Karim Palant has joined Facebook as UK public policy manager. Alex Belardinelli, long-time Balls SpAd in government and opposition, is now spinning for Uber, the multi-billion dollar ride-sharing corporation, as their UK head of communications. Do let Guido know of any more examples of exitism…

Uber have appointed former Ed Balls SpAd Alex Belardinelli as their new Head of Communications for UK and Ireland. Wonder if he turned on surge pricing during the contract negotiations…

Really pleased to say I will be joining the great team at @Uber next week as Head of Communications for @UberUK & @Uber_Ireland

— Alex Belardinelli (@abelardinelli) October 9, 2015

Let’s hope their drivers don’t go too far, too fast…

Former Balls spinner Alex Belardinelli has been giving his prescription for where things went wrong under Miliband on the Daily Politics:

“We didn’t do enough. I think there are things we could have done differently. I think we could have had a message that was more pro-business. I think fiscal responsibility and making the sums add up could have been part of our message more day by day. And also I think we needed a broader a message… towards the end it ended up becoming less of a squeezed middle and more of a squeezed bottom. Most people aren’t affected by [the bedroom tax and zero hours contracts] and we know people don’t vote in an altruistic way.”

Sounds like we will be seeing more of the uncanny mannerisms that Belardinelli shares with his old boss. Shut your eyes and it could be Balls speaking. He says his future plans include TV punditry…

Labour were very quick to get a quote out about the 4Children charity childcare survey this morning, swiftly claiming the report showed “under David Cameron, childcare costs have rocketed by 30 per cent since 2010. Wages are down by £1,600 and the availability of childcare has plummeted”. Ed Balls’ spinmeister Alex Belardinelli had a particular interest in plugging the story, too:

Lab wld expand free c/care for working parents RT @BBCNews:1 in 5 parents consider quitting work over childcare costs pic.twitter.com/B1CUB7syDW

— Alex Belardinelli (@abelardinelli) January 8, 2015

By some strange coincidence, who is 4Children’s spin queen? Regular readers will remember Ellie Gellard, ex-Labour adviser and fiancée of one Alex Belardinelli, now Head of Communications for the charity. Surely not another case for the increasingly attentive Charity Commission to investigate…

Alex Belardinelli, the marauding SpAd for Ed Balls, is up early this morning tweeting about the Forex Fixing scandal;

We called for regulation of financial benchmarks like forex but Ministers dismissed it out of hand – @ChrisLeslieMP: http://t.co/SOPQI8lOEY

— Alex Belardinelli (@abelardinelli) November 12, 2014

According to the Bank of England the scandal dates back to 2006, the LIBOR scandal dates back to 2005, when Belardinelli’s master Ed Balls was Economic Secretary to the Treasury. In other words it happened under Labour’s watch – specifically under Brown and Balls – and was only uncovered under Osborne’s watch. You have got to admire Belardinelli’s chutzpah..

UPDATE:  Neglected to record that the Parliamentary Adviser to the Economic Secretary to the Treasury at the time of the market rigging was… Alex Belardinelli.

Talking to his constituents last year Ed Balls railed against so-called zero-hours contracts, launching a stinging attack in the Morley Observer & Advertiser:

“Just in this area, thousands are working with this kind of contract. It puts a real strain on working families and cause huge anxiety and uncertainty. Each week they don’t know whether there will be enough work to feed their kids or pay for childcare.

I want to see this issue looked at properly and action taken so that these kinds of contracts are the exception rather than the rule. It’s no way for Britain to compete in the global economy in the 21st century. Anyone who’s affected and wants me to look into their case should get in touch by emailed ed@edballs.com or call 0113 253 9466.”

Stern words.

The Sun today reveals that Balls has employed four workers on zero-hours contracts in the last year. Indeed, out of the 62 Labour MPs who employed parliamentary staff on zero-hours contracts in 2013, the Shadow Chancellor was one of the biggest users. His spokesman Alex Belardinelli is trying to spin away the screw-up by arguing: “on advice of IPSA we use their casual contracts solely to allow us to pay living wage to interns & students on temp placements”. That doesn’t even make sense; temp contracts can of course specify hours. Nor is IPSA advice mandatory, if they told Balls to send his staffers up the chimneys would he do that too? Balls tells his constituents to give his office a ring if they have been affected by zero-hours contracts. Chances are the phone will be answered by someone who is on one too…

Fortunately, the Shadow Chancellor has a defender in the Institute of Directors:

“The fact that so many students and young people are employed by Labour MPs in this way further undermines the calls from the far left to ban such contracts all together. Thankfully, cooler heads have prevailed and the Labour policy on Zero Hours Contracts is now pretty sensible. Just don’t tell Oxfam…”

A welcome change in policy…