Bless the Patron Saint of sub-editors who gave Ed Balls his surname

Ed Balls is talking his surname again. In an interview in the Mirror he talks about how his sense of social injustice and desire to run the economy down was forged during his student days under Thatcherism. Yet, shockingly, I can exclusively reveal a 4 year old anecdote from the Independent which reveals he was in fact the member of some nasty right wing organisation at Oxford.

What I won't do at this point is repeat the part of the story which goes onto say Balls has never denied this and that he, like many others at Oxford joined all sorts of political clubs, no matter how extreme their views, simply to gain access to the debates and social scene.

Unbelievably, he was even a member of some dangerous lefty Labour body and active in socialist causes, which is at complete odds with anything he has stood for since being an MP. That a New Labour MP seeking leadership of his party should claim to have always been a left winger is beyond belief. And that is the real bit of revisionist self-portrayal that is important here.

At least he has got it right on VAT. All over the country those who voted Tory are openly saying "we were going to vote Labour but while we could accept mismanagement of the economy, erosion of civil liberties, spin and lies, we were scared shitless by their refusal to rule out a tax rise." Too late now though Ed. Should have spoken up at the time.