[Tubby Isaacs]

I like him personally. And think he's been dead right about the economy.

But lots of people seem not to like him, because of his associations with Gordo.

Is he a long term liability? I fear he is. The more he's been right, the more he's just had stuff chucked in his face from 1998.

Should he be demoted?

[oboogie]

I think he's a big part of the reason that Labour are still trailing in the polls on the economy.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, exactly. Not exactly fair, is it?

Ed Milliband tried to avoid giving him the brief, but he couldn't in the end.

David M would be useful- the most media friendly politician in the party is doing sod all at the moment. But I guess that would be impossible because of the logical reason he's the brother of Ed.

[Abernathy]

I went to hear him give the Labour for Industry Group lecture at Aston University about a year ago, and I was struck by what a brilliant grasp of the economic situation he has, too.

I actually voted for him as party leader (with Miliband, E. as my second preference) because I thought at the time that of all the candidates he had been the singularly most effective front-bench spokesman we had.

He suffers from persistently being associated with Gordon Brown, who was in turn massively unpopular, though like Balls a very, very good economist.

Should he be demoted? No, I don't think he should be, but he may well be in order to accommodate the frontbench comeback of Miliband frere..

[The Weeping Angel]

He has that baggage unfortunately which is used against them he's an Emmanuel Goldstein figure for the Tory press I don't think he's dome that bad actually as Shadow Chancellor

[Tubby Isaacs]

I liked him too in the leadership campaign. The whole thing was a farce, giving the coalition too much space. Balls was one of the few who kept on shadowing properly.

Of course, he has a silly name.

Would a general election allow him to be heard more on his own terms? People might learn he wasn't regulating LIBOR and didn't run the FSA, or deregulate banks.

[The Weeping Angel]

Yeah Labour should have had a Leadership election sooner they allowed the Government to trash Labour's record and spread the lie that Labour spent all the money.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The general election campaign (Director, E Milliband) also conceded far too much ground on that score.

How Osborne's "look across the Irish Sea" bollocks didn't get used properly, I don't know.

[Abernathy]

Yeah Labour should have had a Leadership election sooner they allowed the Government to trash Labour's record and spread the lie that Labour spent all the money.

Indeed. Space was given to the Tories and their partners to propagate their chosen meme - the lie that the economic deficit had been caused by Labour profligacy and that "the mess we inherited" had to be tackled by means of draconian cuts in public spending.

To the Tories' credit, they took full advantage. Every single media appearance by any and every Tory/Lib Dem spokesperson spoke about "the mess we inherited" without fail, and you have to admire the discipline that saw them stick to this so rigidly. Meanwhile, Labour wasn't countering this properly because it was distracted by an un-neccesarily long drawn-out leadership contest.

[The Weeping Angel]

My real worry Abernathy is that are Labour doing enough now to counter this lie?

[Abernathy]

Well, past the halfway point of the government, the "mess we inherited" meme has considerably less traction and there are signs that people are genuinely beginning to tire of it as a credible reason for why everything economy wise is still shite.

But yes, I do think we could be doing more actively to dispel the lie and sell ourselves as the alternative government.

[oboogie]

My real worry Abernathy is that are Labour doing enough now to counter this lie?

Evidently not, as evidenced by the disastrous economic opinion polls and the fact that the Tories, three years on, are still getting away with the "mess we inherited" line virtually unchallenged.

[The Weeping Angel]

How bad was the latest opinion poll Oboogie?

[oboogie]

Only 20% trust Labour on the economy, 55% say they do not. The same figures for the Tories are 27% and 51%. With the state of the economy over the past (almost) three years, Labour should be creaming them by now.

I trust David Cameron and George Osborne to make the right decisions about the economy

Agree 27% (+2) Disagree 51% (-4) Net agree -24% (+6)

I trust Ed Miliband and Ed Balls to make the right decisions about the economy

Agree 20% (-1) Disagree 55% (+3) Net agree -35% (-4)

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/02/ ... -5-points/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[The Weeping Angel]

Anthony Selsdon has called on Ed Balls to resign


http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/20 ... -his-sword" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;