Osborne bests the Man With A Past

Balls is a bit like a vampire – he has bite, but he works best in the darkness. In the House of Commons, with those lights shining on him, his powers drain. George Osborne had the better of him in their brief exchanges at Treasury Questions. Balls led on the snow joke. But Osborne had pre-empted that earlier, when he first stood up. Balls teased him about going to Klosters in the winter, but these things only work in newspapers where you can run a picture of Osborne in ski gear. It leaves the House cold.
 
The key Osborne line was that Balls is “the man with a past” – and how. It was said with just the right touch of menace. And he had a fairly decent gag: that Eds Miliband and Balls both “know what’s it’s like to be people’s second choice.” Balls significantly dropped the double-dip talk, and spoke of growth over winter grinding to a halt.