I wonder if Theresa May felt faintly apprehensive this morning. It must bad enough to
awake and remember that you’re the Home Secretary, held responsible for every immigrant, every strike and every crime committed in Britain. Northern Ireland is more poisoned ministerial
chalice, just. Now, she is being shadowed by Ed Balls, a ravening attack-dog liberated by the opposition.
Balls has re-invented himself as a traditional Labour politician, casting himself as the champion of the working class. He says, accurately, that the poor are the victims of crime and the victims of unbridled immigration and social dislocation and his opposition will be ardently authoritarian. May will have to cut police numbers: Balls will attack her. Ken Clarke’s prison reforms might lead to a rise in crime: Balls will blame May for cutting police numbers. Unemployment will rise as public sector cuts are implemented, May will struggle to impose the unworkable immigration cap: Balls will talk disingenuously of limiting low-skilled migration from the EU, quibbling about British jobs for British workers.
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