And Westminster’s Idle Question of the Day is: will Ed Balls be made shadow chancellor
under a Miliband leadership? There are good arguments both for and against the proposition – and most of them are made in this blog post by the Guardian’s Nicholas Watt. Even Blairites, he says, are warming to the idea of Balls
running Labour’s economic policy. But if it’s to happen under David Miliband, then the two men would have to reconcile their different views on tackling the deficit. Under Ed Miliband, the
reconciliation would have to be more personal than economic. Neither, I suppose, is impossible.
But as all this speculation whirls around Balls, I do wonder why Liam Byrne’s name hasn’t been mentioned more often in connection with the role. Put aside his two infamous memos (here and here), and the former chief secretary to the Treasury is more suited to these straitened times than many of his colleagues.
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