Ed Balls’ fighting talk is getting him nowhere, yet

The stock response of many Coffee Housers will be ‘Who Cares?’ but surely Ed Balls will be nominated for the Labour leadership? Labour may recognise that a Balls leadership would likely end in Footian catastrophe but he will, in all certainty, proceed to the next round. Surely?

Like Pete and Ben Brogan, I reckon Balls and David Miliband allowed their supporters to declare in a steady trickle, hoping to build momentum as the June 8 deadline neared. In which case it is telling that Miliband Major has changed his tactics in response to Miliband Minor’s sudden surge. David Miliband now has the backing of 48 MPs, a very significant advance on yesterday’s figure. By contrast, Ed Balls languishes on 15 nominations.

If Balls is playing the long game it’s beginning to look extremely odd: there are 144 nominations still to obtain but the momentum is plainly with the Milibands. Besides, today is the perfect setting for Balls to stimulate his leadership bid: he has been ubiquitous over the past 12 hours, taking the fight volubly to Michael Gove’s education reforms.