Ed Balls has just given his post-Budget briefing in parliament. The striking thing about Balls, no matter how much you might disagree with him, is how much he relishes these occasions. His whole face lights up, like a large Cheshire cat that has spied a snoozing mouse, as he goes in for the kill. He even went through a list circulated by CCHQ of ‘questions for Labour’. No wonder some Tory MPs wish they had someone on their side who loves the political game as much as the Shadow Chancellor.
Now, Balls had plenty of soundbites: he has calculated that you’d have to drink 50,000 pints of beer a year to make up for the impact on personal income of other tax rises and cuts. And he has an imaginary family where one parent works and the other cares for the two children, with a £20,000 annual salary, which would apparently be £381 worse off this year.
But what was really interesting was how much emphasis Balls continues to put on the cut to the 50p rate.
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