Where Ed Balls went wrong

In today’s Observer, Andrew Rawnsley says that Ed Balls has become a victim of his own success. The Shadow Chancellor predicted the George Osborne ‘would smother growth by cutting too far, too fast…The coalition jeered that Mr Balls was a deficit-denier and an unreconstructed old Keynesian,’ says Rawnsley — as if this has been subsequently disproven. But rather than take a bow, poor Mr Balls has to adjust to the consequences of  Osborne’s failure by admitting even he’d have to administer austerity. So it looks like a concession! Unkind souls like Dan Hodges conclude that ‘Ed Balls is now sleeping with the fishes.’

In fact, Balls is in trouble because his first analysis was fake. The cuts were not too deep and too harsh, but he pretended otherwise because he thought it would hurt Osborne more. Even before the election, this was his plan: ramp up spending, jeer the Tories as they cleaned up the mess, promise to spend more then actually do so if the budget was balanced by 2015.