News from the New Party

Lies, damned lies and Balls

Fraser Nelson has incurred the wrath of the Schools Secretary for daring to point out that the whole government approach to the public finances in the run up to the next election is based on brazen deception:

Ed Balls has just called me up about my post from this morning , hopping mad. He instructed me to "take that post down now". I thought he was joking: has there been some change to the constitution where ministers now have power over the media? But he was deadly serious. "You should not call me a liar," said Balls. I told him that if he doesn't want to be called a liar, “he shouldn't tell lies”. His defence is that his point about debt is a Brownie, not a lie - okay, he didn't put it quite like that. But when he said "debt" he referred to the "ratio of national debt to gross domestic product" which is forecasted in the Budget to start falling in eight to nine years time. Now the Budget, of course, has a "horizon" running out in 2013/14: there are literally no plans beyond that. It is a lie to suggest otherwise...

Balls told me if I keep the post up, it will "expose" the sort of publication that we are - and our "political" bias. A curious point. McBride used to make pathetic little "threats" like this - now he's gone, Balls has to do the dirty work himself.  You'd think Balls has perhaps by now worked out that The Spectator is rather pleased to consider itself a thorn in the side of this tawdry, mendacious government. "So you will take the post down?" Balls said. I just laughed. He hung up. Matt d'Ancona was later surprised to find out that he had four missed calls from Balls on his mobile.

If only the situation were not so serious, the attitude of Ed Balls and his colleagues would indeed be laughable.  The tactic of brazenly denying the obvious reality until the rest of the world is bored of trying to contradict them is becoming a keynote of the Brown administration.  In the absence of anything like a proper policy it's almost the raison d'etre of the government.  But even leaving aside the catastrophic economic consequences of our massive public debt, the political and constitutional consequences are just as damning.  The BNP now has elected representatives at all levels in the country except for elected local mayors (although the English Democrats have one of these at Doncaster) and at Westminster.  Public apathy with politics has already spilled over into public anger which has started to demonstrate itself at the ballot box.  If the Labour Party wins the next general election on a campaign based on an obvious lie, then the electorate will not take kindly to being fooled again.  David Cameron was right to suggest that there may be riots on the streets.  The people cannot be played for fools too often.