During the leadership campaign Ed Balls has demonstrated his willingness to march to the beat of a different drum against the mainstream consensus over the need for spending cuts. However, neither the party membership nor the public seem to have warmed to him. But Ed Balls can do human. Here he is drumming with his pen pall

How can we possibly present a coherent message when our cabinet presents such a contradictory message? If anyone wonders why Labour is in such dire straits then look at the disconnect Ed balls displays between public statements and true belief. At conference Ed Balls has popped up with a newfound conversion to the values of regulating the financial markets. ED BALLS SEPT 21 2008 said :   ...

Saturday’s Guardian has an interview with Ed Balls: Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, has moved to challenge accusations that Labour is not credible on the economy by telling the public sector unions that he endorses George Osborne’s public sector pay freeze until the end of the parliament, and that he accepts every spending cut… “My

Every school in England could be rated on a scale of A to E under plans published today to introduce a New York style "report card" for schools. The schools secretary Ed Balls has published proposals on how the report card, first announced as part of the decision to scrap Sats for 14-year-olds in the summer, would work. The report card would pull together all the information currently available, o...

There is a mistake that left-wingers frequently make: that is, to buy the narrative that right-wingers are spinning for them. I fear this is the trap that Hopi Sen has fallen in when he makes the case against Ed Balls' candidacy for Labour leadership: As a result of this hurly-burly past, what Ed Balls doesn’t have is a positive public image. So what?

I may be mistaken, but I thought I just heard Ed Balls saying, so as to brush off concerns about school admissions and grandstand the "achievements under Labour", that where he lives all parents get their first choice of school. Hold on, doesn't Ed Balls live in that special enclave where there is that "state" school - as in Grant Maintained and thus a de facto public school paid by the taxpa...

by Jon Lansman, from Left Futures There have been two important outcomes from the debate over the last few months: Ed Miliband has come from behind to win support for change in the party. And Ed Balls has, in beginning to turn public opinion on the deficit back towards Labour, demonstrated his unique qualification to be

Gordon Brown and Ed Balls argue that cutting spending on public services must mean removing money from the front line. Every possible efficiency saving, they say, is already being made. So what is the top item on the Department for...

Ed Balls MP is a widely reviled figure in the right-wing press and right-wing blogs. But it's more unfortunate that many on the left have also bought into the narrative that 'Ed Balls is a bully' or that he is unelectable simply because the right-wing press don't like him. But Ken Livingstone last night on Newsnight made a point about Ed Balls that I've heard repeated seve...

Ed Balls and Alistair Darling are at odds over public spending after the Chancellor's department refused to back the Schools Secretary on Labour's health and education plans.