Ed Balls walked into two traps on Newsnight yesterday evening. First, he seemed stumped when Jeremy Paxman asked him if he was praying that George Osborne was right. Paxman’s ‘gotcha
point’ was that if Osborne isn’t right the country is in deep trouble and Balls wouldn’t want that.
But Balls’ more serious slip was to say, “My view, though, is that the central outcome isn’t that we see a resumption of growth.” This, as coalition sources have been pointing out today, allows them to present any growth as a vindication of their strategy.
For all the talk about the NHS today, the economy still remains the central battleground in politics. So far, the economic data has not been decisive one way or the other. As long as there are shades of grey in the numbers, their interpretation will be fiercely fought over and slips like the ones Balls made last night seized on by the other side.
UPDATE: Ed Balls’ office is in touch to say that he wasn’t saying that there would be no growth, rather that he was stressing that growth would be slow over the next few years. They say that the next line of his answer makes that clear: “In my view the central outcome isn’t that we see a resumption of growth, the central outcome is that we at best go into a long and prolonged period of slower growth, which will be tough for families up and down the country, tough for businesses…”
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