Ed Balls

Enjoyable and informative but where’s the drama? Political Currency reviewed

30 September 2023 9:00 am

The first episode of George Osborne and Ed Balls’s new podcast, Political Currency, opened with an old clip of the…

Did Ed Balls mean to make a documentary on the joys of Trump’s America?

4 August 2018 9:00 am

The thing I most regret having failed ever to ask brave, haunted, wise Sean O’Callaghan when I last saw him…

Ed Balls’ Christmas Day starter recipe

12 December 2015 9:00 am

Cooking the Christmas dinner is my job in our house. And I love it. All those courses and juggling of…

Portrait of the week

16 May 2015 9:00 am

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, soon got used to the surprise of the Conservatives being returned in the general…

Take it from Taki: this could be the start of something really big

16 May 2015 9:00 am

OK. Magnanimity in victory is a sine qua non among civilised men and women, so let me not be the…

Spectator letters: The mobility scooters strike back

18 April 2015 9:00 am

The real road menace Sir: I write in anger after reading Mark Mason’s malicious attack on mobility scooters (‘Hell on…

Andrew Marr’s diary: Why this is such a tooth-grindingly awful election

11 April 2015 9:00 am

So far, what an infuriating election campaign. We have the most extraordinary array of digital, paper and broadcasting media at…

Ed Miliband could still win. Here’s what would happen next

11 April 2015 9:00 am

He could still win. Here’s what happens if he does

Ed Miliband’s 100 days – and the first Ed Balls Budget

11 April 2015 9:00 am

There will be tax rises to suit every taste. But the people he’s expecting to pay will probably just leave

Zac Goldsmith: How my dad saved Britain

28 February 2015 9:00 am

If you’re grateful not to be in the euro, it’s James Goldsmith and his ‘rebel army’ you should thank

Lord Green must answer for HSBC’s sins – but maybe it was always too big to manage

14 February 2015 9:00 am

Stephen Green — the former trade minister Lord Green of Hurstpier-point, who became this week’s political punchbag— was always a…

Why my friends love the idea of a nasty, stupid mansion tax

4 October 2014 9:00 am

I see all the flaws with a mansion tax, I really do. And yet some little piece of me, some…

The Spectator's Notes: Quangos - a world of perfect hypocrisy

8 February 2014 9:00 am

The accusation that the Tories have been installing their people in public appointments should evoke only a hollow laugh. They…

Portrait of the week

1 February 2014 9:00 am

Home Britain’s gross domestic product grew by 1.9 per cent last year, the most since 2007, according to the Office…

Ed Balls's secret: he doesn't care whether his tax plan makes sense

1 February 2014 9:00 am

There were a million people who voted Labour in the 2005 general election but not in 2010, when the party…

Any other business: How François Hollande let France miss the global recovery train

25 January 2014 9:00 am

I’ve always respected stationmasters, but that sentiment is not universally shared. A distinguished friend of mine across the Channel described…

Welfare wars

11 January 2014 9:00 am

George Osborne is refreshingly uninterested in his public image, believing that he will be judged by the success (or otherwise)…

High-speed fail

2 November 2013 9:00 am

A year ago the electoral strategies of the two main parties seemed set. The Conservatives would stand as the party…

Guido Fawkes to Damian McBride: Who's spinning now?

5 October 2013 9:00 am

When Gordon Brown eventually became aware that his Downing Street was about to be engulfed in the Smeargate scandal, he…

The Spectator’s notes

13 July 2013 9:00 am

Andrew Mitchell was forced to resign as the Tory Chief Whip last autumn because he called policemen at the Downing…