Thursday, January 12, 2006

Ruth Kelly: You're Just Not Up to It

I am just watching Question Time. Am I alone in thinking that Ed Balls is just not up to it either? Every time I have seen him on TV he has been shambolic. Tonight is no exception. Truly awful. If he is Labour's future then God help them. His only redeeming feature is his love of Norwich City.

12 comments:

Russ said...

That's gross.

Jonathan Sheppard said...

Thats not a very nice thing to say about a Minister russ. Ho Ho Ho.

Anonymous said...

I see someone on Betfair wants over £100 at 6-1 for him to be the next chancellor. They must be mad. Like Ruth Kelly, simply not up to it.

Aidan said...

I thought Question Time was more of a mess than usual last night. Paris and Tebbit did a really good job though and I thought Oaten looked comfortable for the most part (though reacted badly to Matthew's prodding about the idea that he was campaigning before Christmas when he should have tried to protect more calm and statesman-like qualities).

Guido Fawkes said...

I shall be supporting the Blessed Ruth vociferously - politically if she goes the Education White Paper will fall.

Since it is Tory policy to back the White Paper Iain, you are undermining Cameron's policy...

Anonymous said...

Balls is far too agressive for a forum like Question Time he needs to learn that you can't beat an audience into submission.

Anonymous said...

I was in the audience last night.I thought it wasn't a good Question time as there were too many questions taken and there was no time to get into them in any detail.
Conclusions?Oaten is simply not a leader of people.I'm not even sure he could communicate what sort of party he wants.
Balls had the difficult task of defending the indefensible.He did it badly.
Tebbit was amusing,it was easy to see why he rose so high in politics.

Paul Linford said...

Balls is a very bright guy but he needs to tone down his aggression if he's going to become a serious political player. At the moment he's very much a Brownite version of Alastair Campbell, and he seems to think that just because he used to beat the media into submission by quoting all those figures at us he can do the same with the British public. He seems to have ballooned in weight since he became an MP as well which adds to the impression. It makes me wonder what he's like in the home -how on earth does Yvette cope with all that testosterone?

Anonymous said...

Ed Balls has just lost his seat!!

Boundary Commission gain!

Paul Linford said...

Nice one Antony - but Gordon Brown will be PM by then and there's no way he's going to let his right-hand-man (and possible future Chancellor) miss out on a seat.
What will happen is that some hapless old stooge will be prevailed upon to stand down at the last minute on the promise of a peerage, as happened in the cases of David Clark, Derek Foster et al, so that Balls can be shoe-horned into the vacant seat.

Anonymous said...

Balls on Question Time was just that - bollocks.

Anonymous said...

Linford your column in the Lincolnshire Echo at the last election was so sanctimonious towards the Tory party. I was running the campaign of the Lincoln candidate and it really didn't help having that column!

B*****d!

Sour grapes aside... you are right about Balls and the fact that Labour will bend over backwards to get him another seat... this really does bode well for us Tories in Wakefield as it is entirely possible Labour will disintegrate with warring factions and in infighting.

Perhaps his lovely(?) wife Yvette Cooper will let her hubby move into her seat, given that most of the town of Normanton will move there.

Another aside... why didn't Yvette Cooper not take her husband's surname after they were married. Was it new age feminism or shame?

I'm finished now