Ed Balls, one of the Labour Leadership contenders, has published an article on his website (here) in which he talks about a few traps the Labour Party should avoid. A week is a long time in politics, apparently long enough to forget my Countering the Coalition series.

Obviously, I’m not claiming to have a monopoly on ideas, but see if you can spot the difference.

Balls:

First, we risk falling into Mr Cameron’s trap by focusing our fire too much on the Liberal Democrats.

Roberts:

It is lots of fun and easy to do, but the Labour Party needs to be disciplined enough to resist attacking the Lib Dems over the betrayal of their voters.

Balls:

Yes, they have ditched their manifesto and sold their principles for power —

Roberts:

If Labour lost its soul during its period in office, the Lib Dems have sold theirs for a few ministerial cars (which Cameron then took away).

article 1196442 0573AFD3000005DC 90 468x343 Am I talking Balls or is he talking me?

Copying some other kid’s homework.

Balls:

Even if Lib Dem ministers are wheeled out by Downing Street to defend the most unpopular decisions, we must not forget this is fundamentally a Conservative Government.

Roberts:

You can be sure that when things are going well a Conservative will represent the government but when it gets tough, they will wheel out a hapless Lib Dem fall guy.
It is thus appropriate to treat the Coalition not as something strange but as something that is all too familiar; this is a Tory Government in all but name. It is up to Labour to call it as it is.

Balls:

There is no doubt that Mr Cameron wants to use his alliance with the Liberal Democrats to achieve what he failed in opposition — to detoxify the Conservative brand in the public mind. At its heart, this will remain a neo-liberal government of the Right, but Mr Cameron will seek to present the coalition as dominating the centre ground, while caricaturing Labour as irrelevant, reactionary and retreating to the left.

Roberts:

Repeatedly, the Tories have taken advantage of the Lib Dems who are hopelessly out of their depth and essentially benign in that the Tories are winning the internal arguments so easily. On the Economy, on Foreign Policy, on Europe, on Health, Immigration, Families and more the Tories get their way, and that is just the original coalition agreement.
Ultimately, we have to keep in mind that the Lib Dems are just there to make up the numbers on the Tory backbenches. We should therefore show them up as what they are: useful idiots.

So, sound advice from Ed, and I’m glad we’re in agreement (apart from the Graduate Tax) but there is a reason I have a Referencing page!

It looks like Balls is talking complete and utter Roberts.

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