Ed Balls comes out... as a Conservative

An astonishing interview in The Guardian, where Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls - appears to sign up to Coalition economic policy.  Here is what he had to say:

On Public Sector Pay:
"It is now inevitable that public sector pay restraint will have to continue through this parliament. Labour cannot duck that reality and won't. There is no way we should be arguing for higher pay when the choice is between higher pay and bringing unemployment down."

On Cuts:
"My starting point is, I am afraid, we are going to have keep all these cuts. There is a big squeeze happening on budgets across the piece. The squeeze on defence spending, for instance, is £15bn by 2015. We are going to have to start from that being the baseline. At this stage, we can make no commitments to reverse any of that, on spending or on tax. So I am being absolutely clear about that".

Mr Balls also suggests that Labour will soon come up with "tough decisions" on welfare and waste.

After months of opposition, the Labour Party appear to have conceded defeat.  Their previous policy of campaigning against every Coalition 'cut', looks to have been consigned to the dustbin.  Perhaps it is because of the unpopularity of Ed Milliband, perhaps a realisation that the public no longer trust Labour on the economy - especially after Gordon Brown's virtual bankrupting of the country.

Whatever the reason, I think Coalition Ministers will be able to sleep safer in their beds in future.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Before you need a Plan B it is worth having a credible Plan A

With all the talk of cuts, it is worth remembering that the coalition have pushed through £16 billion of spending reductions compared to Labour's plans for £14 billion. Moreover Government spending has not actually been cut - what has been reduced is the actual rate of increase in spending.

So the Labour Party are exaggerating about the cuts - all for party political advantage.

The latest gimmick has been over he weekend, when the Shadow Chancellor demanded a 'Plan B' and implied the economic recovery plan was not working. He could not answer what Labour plans were, or what the level of debt should be, even though his party is calling for a slow down in the Government's deficit reduction programme.  If this were not bad enough, today the IMF said that the Government's economic programme was working and did not need changing - despite Mr Balls indicating that the IMF thought otherwise.

Labour's weakness in economic policy has now been exposed. Electoral history shows that when you lose economic credibility, you lose the credibility of the electorate.