ENG: Edward Michael Balls, (born 25 February 1967) is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Morley and Outwood since 2010, and is the current Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. From 2005 to 2010, he was the MP for Normanton and he served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010.
Balls was educated at Keble College, Oxford, where he gained a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (graduating ahead of David Cameron), and later Harvard, where he was a Kennedy Scholar specialising in Economics. Balls went on to work as leader writer for the Financial Times for several years before becoming an economic adviser to Shadow Chancellor Gordon Brown in 1994, going on to become Chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers upon Brown becoming Chancellor of ...
Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, warned the "world is making the 1930s mistake" after Moody's move to put Britain on “negative” watch amid fears of contagion from the eurozone debt crisis.
"Even though it is clear in Greece, in Ireland, in other countries, in Britain too (that) this austerity isn't working, the message is 'Plough on, dig a deeper hole, carry on with an austerity that is failing'," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
"I fear what's happening here is that the world is making the 1930s mistake and the ratings agencies are partly responsible for this," he ...
... in the City
The shadow chancellor has one priority – to give Labour a chance of winning the election.
Things can only get better. The battle hymn of Tony Blair, as borrowed from D:Ream, may be as relevant for Broke Britannia as it was for Cool Britannia. Like Noah, George Osborne hopes for a sign that the economic floodwaters are abating. In this version of Genesis, Tesco gets to play the dove, yesterday offering 20,000 jobs by way of an olive branch.
When Norman Lamont talked of green shoots in 1991, he was reviled for his optimism. Shriti Vadera, a front-bencher in Gordon ...
... proud to turn down help from a top City firm
Fat-Cat-bashing Labour bigwigs are not too proud to refuse donations from a top City firm. Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls gets nearly £60,000 of help from accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers in the shape of a research assistant for his Commons’ office. And last year Business spokesman Chuka Umunna got a £30,000 aide from PwC. Up with the workers!
Dapper Energy Minister Greg Barker is so attached to his 11-week-old dachshund Otto that he brings it to the Commons in a designer bag – in defiance of Parliament’s ban on ...
Enabled Works’ new home in Morley
When the Leeds Remploy factory closed down in Cottingley it was a huge blow to dozens of local disabled people who had worked there. It would have been easy to lose faith in a tough jobs market. But rather than giving in, a group of 13 workers from our local Leeds factory and the Remploy Factory over in Pontefract each put some of their own redundancy money into a pot to set up a new factory to keep the group of workers together and in work. |
Speed awareness
Many thanks to everyone who has backed our campaign to get 20mph speed limits on busy roads around our local schools and residential areas in Morley. So far we have had over a hundred local residents sign our petition. Councillor Neil Dawson and the local team will be out collecting more signatures this weekend. And [...] |
Labour launches poster on David Cameron’s tax cut for millionaires
The Labour Party is today launching a poster to highlight David Cameron’s decision to cut the top rate of tax for the richest people in the country, which comes into effect today.
Today’s tax cut for millionaires will see 13,000 people earning over £1 million get an average tax cut of £100,000, while families will be [...] |
George Osborne’s comments today are the cynical act of a desperate Chancellor
A Chancellor has to think very carefully before they comment on the issues of the day. How they do so says a lot about the character of their Chancellorship.
That is why I believe George Osborne’s calculated decision to use the shocking and vile crimes of Mick Philpott to advance a political argument is the cynical [...] |
