Brown at 10 made Philip Collins’ column in today’s Times. The subject: yesterday’s rise of the ‘true’ Red Ed.
Now that Ed Balls is Shadow Chancellor, Collins makes the point that “Mr Miliband’s leadership will be blighted by the same blindness that afflicted Gordon Brown’s.” He continues “only one person is painted in less flattering colours in Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge’s Brown at 10 than the Prime Minister himself, and that is his brutal consigliere, Ed Balls.”
By the same token, Collins doesn’t shy away from praise of Ed Balls – claiming he’s succeeded in polarising the economic debate thanks to a pretty convincing speech he gave during the Labour leadership election last year – indeed, Collins paints a picture of the most economically astute character the Labour Party has to offer.
The point is, and safe to say most people know it, Ed Balls is a very mixed bag. If he’s right on the economy – that a longer term, less swingeing, strategy to cutting public spending would have proven the best form of damage limitation – then he’ll prove himself to be exactly what the party needs. But if he’s wrong, well, it’s going to get messy.
A quote from Brown at 10 – as yet not picked up on in the media, but which proves Philip Collins’ point perfectly – comes from an adviser who worked with him: “The most important thing to remember about Ed is that he never ever – ever – wanted to lose any argument. If threatened, he would attack”.
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