Oh brother, where art thou?

All eyes have turned to the future Labour front bench, particularly the identity of George Osborne’s shadow. Ed Balls has made his most obvious pitch yet. In a piece for the Guardian, bluntly titled ‘Now let’s offer a real choice – and nail the Tory lie on cuts’, he writes:

‘Being a united party is not enough. We must also win the argument. If we do not give people a positive reason to vote Labour, rather than just a temporary outlet for their protest, we will not persuade them to stick with us come the election.   First, on the economy – of course we will need tough choices to get the deficit down. But we must win the argument that the speed and severity of the coalition’s cuts are both unfair and unnecessary, and will put the recovery at risk. We must make the case for an alternative plan that puts jobs and growth first.