Two Eds

I wrote this piece about whether Two Eds are better than one back in January 2011 - but in the two plus years than have passed Labour is still struggling badly to get its message across. 

The change was forced on Ed Miliband, of course, because Alan Johnson stood down as shadow chancellor for personal reasons - but having two people at the helm who are so closely identified with Gordon Brown still seems like a high risk strategy.

The signs are that Labour is now trying to change direction - to distance itself from its recent past - during which time the two Eds have signally failed to convince voters that they have a viable plan to help the economy grow while keeping public spending under control.   

Such a pity that Alan Johnson is no longer there - he gave some real gravitas to the Labour front bench and a sense that while he is a full-time politician - he's not just another party hack.        

Two Eds - Better Than One? (24 January 2011) 

Ed Miliband's decision to appoint Ed Balls as the new shadow chancellor - means that two former proteges of Gordon Brown are now in charge of Labour's economic policy.

Now no one is seriously suggesting that Gordon Brown and his allies created - the economic crisis the country faces today.

But he did allow the UK economy to overheat spectacularly - particularly in the housing market - and he did encourage an enormous credit boom - which was then followed by the mother of all busts.

So the charge that can be fairly levelled at Brown and Co. - is that they took their eye off the ball - and left the UK economy in a weaker state to weather the storm - than many of our key competitors.

And up until just before the general election - Gordon Brown's solution was to spend our way out of trouble - without the need to tackle the enormous public spending deficit built up under his premiership.

But the truth is Gordon Brown couldn't even convince his own chancellor - another Scot, Alistair Darling - to follow him down the path of the 'deficit deniers'.

Because Alistair Darling declared that cuts in public spending were vital and necessary - albeit on a slower and less ambitious scale - to the one now advocated by the coalition government.

In opposition Labour has come over all shy about what it would do - specifically - to reduce public spending while taking practical steps to encourage economic growth.

But that is exactly what the mainstream political parties are all committed to - to a greater or slightly lesser degree.

All now accept that public spending needs to be re-balanced, reduced or cut back - depending on your choice of language - yet there's a nervousness that maybe Ed Balls is not fully on board.

Time will tell whether the Labour leader's decision turns out to be a case - where two Eds really are better than one.