Labour Offering An EU Referendum Is 'Silly' - Ed Balls

Ed Balls has come out of the wood work today to say Labour offering an EU referendum is 'silly'. Is it just me or is this guy actually deliberately trying to lose votes?

This comes after Len McCluskey has said Labour should offer an EU referendum or risk being 'boxed in' during the 2015 election campaign. For once I agree with Len. Over half of the British people want a referendum on Europe and in a close General Election race this could prove decisive. Labour may also start to win some of their voters back, they have as big a problem with UKIP as the Conservatives in many marginal seats leave alone socialist heartlands like Rotheram where UKIP won a huge amount of council seats this year.

For once I agree with Len.

There is also a risk that Labour could be the only party not offering an EU referendum at the next General Election. The Conservatives, UKIP and many minor parties will for sure, but rumours in Lib Dem HQ are that they will offer a referendum too.* In the end Len may force Labour's hand; he is bank rolling their whole General Election campaign after all. Of course this would make Ed Balls' comments look even more 'silly'.

Own Goal by not backing a referendum on the EU.

One other question that needs answering is why is Ed Balls, as Shadow Chancellor, in Labour's 'economic week', talking about an EU referendum? Is that really on topic? Ed Balls should be talking about you know the economy. Perhaps it is that Labour has got nothing to say on Economy and must resort to following the Conservatives in only talking about their policies? This seems most likely. At least we know one thing, it's one great Balls up.



*Not that anyone will believe them after they have already under Cleggers promised a referendum and deliberately broke that in government.

50p Immorality

Yesterday Ed Balls, who hasn't said anything for a month despite being second in command of Labour, declared that he wanted to bring back the 50p tax rate. Oh dear, when will these people learn.

Firstly let's examine what Ed Balls said:

"When the deficit is still high, when tough times are now set to last well into the next parliament, when for ordinary families their real incomes are falling and taxes have risen, it cannot be right for David Cameron and George Osborne to have chosen to give the richest people in the country a huge tax cut. That's why, for the next parliament, the next Labour government will reverse this government's top rate tax cut so we can finish the job of getting the deficit down and do it fairly. For the next parliament, we will restore the 50p top rate ... reversing this unfair tax cut for the richest 1% of people in the country."

I'd choose Osborne over Balls any day.

Essentially Ed Balls is making a moral statement. He could have said instead "how dare the rich people not contribute more as a percentage in tax. Its their fault for the recession and we want to make them pay. Its not fair for the everyone else". 

The Conservatives brought in the 45p tax rate and now the rich pay more.

There is one killer argument for why it was right for the Conservatives to cut the 50p tax rate. At 45p the rich may be taxed less as a % but the top 1% now pay more money into the treasury. The 50p tax rate raised either a negligible or no money for the Government to spend (we're not exactly sure because if money did come in the amount was too small to notice and record). The Governments policy of cutting the 50p rate to 45p has brought in £1.5 billion in the first month on top of the tiny amount of money that was/wasn't made under a 50p tax rate. In theory the 45p tax rate should at least bring in £18 billion a year to be spent on the public. This figure is much more than the most outlandish predictions of revenues for the 50p tax rate of £3 billion per year when introduced by Alistair Darling in 2010.

This means Ed Balls only one thing. Ed Balls is an immoral man. He is saying to the British People, despite the money raised in this tax cut coming in a free market fashion which boosts business, jobs and living standards, that people should receive a cut in vital services such as health and education to pay for a 'fairer' tax system. I don't know about you but what is not fair is cutting services when you do not have to. Ed Balls is immorally saying to the poorest bare more of the burden, pay more tax and we'll in the mean time moan at the rich for not doing enough. I don't think that is fair. It is immoral, but then that's the Labour Party for you.

Ed Balls learnt from one of the best when it comes to immorality, remember Labour scrapped the 10p tax rate.

I think this argument is the best at countering opposition to a 45p tax rate. Leave alone how its creates more jobs, allows for wages to rise and brings more intellectuals and ideas to Britain. The killer point is that Ed Balls is really saying to the poorest in society you should have less money so we can pretend to be morally outraged. Ed Balls, Red Ed and the rest of the Labour Party are morally vacuous. 

Ed Balls: I never predicted a double dip recession

Ed Balls today has come out and said he never predicted a double or triple dip recession. Of course this is only true if you miss out everything Ed Balls said from May 2010 to April 2013, otherwise he is absolutely right. What a Muppet.

Two Eds Are Better Than One

Two Ed's are certainly better than one in brining election defeat closer to the Labour Party. I bet Labour Party members are suffering from one hell of an Ed-ache.

Mystic Ed

Can you predict the future? Sadly I can't and I know one other person who can't too. It's Ed Miliband. Whilst the country is on the up he predicted it would crash through the floor. Well sorry Ed, you are wrong.

Breaking News: Labour Re-Shuffle Leaked

Its a good day for Ed Balls MP, as he is finally Labour leader (and every other minister too). This is just another example of how weak Red Ed is and how the Shadow Chancellor controls him. But perhaps This is a good move for the Labour Party because at least Ed Balls' plan of borrow till the country drops is what the trade unions want. GMB may reverse its decision to cut funding of the Labour Party by £1.1 million. Or maybe it will be a Balls Up.

Weekly Poll Lowdown

Red Ed is going to have to make a tough choice soon because he wants to reshuffle his cabinet. So short of getting rid of all these useless pillocks, you would choose Ed Balls to the one to go first from the Shadow Cabinet. This was closely followed by Chuka Umunna the Shadow Anti-Business Secretary who is supposed to criticise Vince Cable, the current Anti-Business Secretary.  Douglas Alexander and Yvette Cooper will sleep soundly with knowledge that they will not go if it was up to the masses as to whether they should keep their jobs.

 Red Ed: Who should I fire to take the attention off my obvious failings?

Who should most be sacked from the Shadow Cabinet?

Ed Balls	33%
Harriet Harman	6%
Douglas Alexander	0%
Yvette Cooper	0%
Sadiq Khan	11%
Stephen Twigg	6%
Andy Burnham	6%
Liam Byrne	11%
Chuka Umunna	28%

Total votes: 18

I don't think Ed Balls is really the worst in the Shadow Cabinet on performance. Ed Balls hasn't done what Labour really need at the moment and that is to put together the basics of an economic plan which sounds reasonable to the public. The public could except a plan which increased levels of spending in certain areas if a commitment to spend the same as the Coalition was made. However, Labour want to keep on borrowing out of the twisted economic experiences of Ed Balls and that's a major root of the problem for Labour's unelectability. But Ed Balls at least does something, and although it's not very good it is broadly left wing. The Unions are at least happy with Balls, even though he is a balls up.

 Ed Ball's economic message is patchy at best.

The person I think should get the sack has done nothing since becoming Shadow Home Secretary. Yep, none of you voted for her, but I would sack Yvette Cooper. She received the most votes of all Shadow Cabinet Ministers at the Labour Party Conference yet what has she actually done? She's criticised the government over the riots blaming it on cuts before they took place. And what else after that? Theresa May has tackled Abu Qatda. What did Yvette say? Nothing. Immigration has been a big topic for the Home Secretary where, despite immigration currently down by a third*, there have been lots of mistakes. But not a peep out of Yvette Cooper.

What Yvette Cooper is is a great disappointment. Someone who should be a key member of the Shadow Front Bench, but is actually as important to the Labour party as Ken Clarke to the progress of Euro-scepticism. Despite all the hype she has done bugger all. 

 The Great disappointment.

In my opinion this makes her worse than Stephen Twigg whose opposition to Coalition reforms is also non-existent. It could be this is because they're super reforms, which I believe is actually the case. But that means that if you want a good education department vote Conservative. This is obviously not the message that Stephen Twigg wants. But his saving grace from being the worst member of the Shadow Cabinet is the fact that there is no hype around him, he is expected to perform averagely at best.

 Even Stephen Twigg is surprised at how bad he actually is.

So there you are, if you're reading Ed don't look to Great Balls Up as a fall man choose his wife as the first to be fired from your socialist squadron. He won't fire her though, he's too weak.

 All voters need to know about the Labour leader.

Vote in the New Poll on the Sidebar.

*Note I say currently because lots of Romanians and Bulgarians are about to take a permanent holiday in the UK.

Ed Balls

Happy Ed Balls Day. Today Marks 2 years since Ed Balls tweeted his own name. He is very full of himself.

I'm not going to criticise Ed Ball's economic polices today. This is partially because he hasn't really got anything but mostly because even with those few he has it would take several years. So let's recount some of the funnier things on Ed Balls day. 

But by far the best thing I have seen is this.