Labour Uncut is interviewing Ed Balls about his leadership bid.
What should we ask him? What will your vote depend on? Here’s a chance to have your say.
Add them to this thread as a comment, by 6pm today.
UPDATE – 26.5.10:
We’ve now done the interview, which will appear either later today or early tomorrow.
So this thread is now closed.
Thanks for the helpful contributions.
Same question as Eddie Mair asked when you launched your leadership bid (hopefully you’ve had time to think about your answer by now !):
“In the key policy areas over the last 3 years, what did you and Gordon Brown disagree on ?”
@Minekiller
Yawn, look son your a boring little tory troll. Your man is only PM because of the support of the Lib Dem, don’t you understand what a coalition is? I never said Labour won the election, your the one in cloud cuckoo land if you thought I said that.
Ed, having read about the new tory schools policy of allowing toby young & co to set up free schools, I’m struggling to understand how a new school can be set up without new purpose built school buildings. I don’t see many empty schools gathering dust.
So, will this policy actually result in schools being set up in rented office space? Where will the pupils go during lunch time, for PE, etc.
Some of these comments on here are utterly rude and should not be published on the website. Do you not have better moderating facilities to stamp out Tory troll? The Tories fear Ed Balls as you can see here and that is one of the reasons why I am contemplating to support you as Labour leader.
Gordon Brown did many great things for this country and I would be pleased to see if someone could continue that. We need a principled leader who is not afraid to speak the truth and not be pressured to conform to the interests of conventional politics or lobbyist groups. I was once a Labour member but left all association with the party after the Iraq war and could no longer bare to see Tony Blair constantly deceiving to us when it came to Iraq and Palestine. That was not the Labour I voted for and that was not a party of fairness.
I have read and listened to what you said regarding the Iraq war, I have wrote some thoughts on it here http://imissgordon.labourhome.org/2010/05/23/ed-ed-iraq-iran-palestine/ and would very much appreciate if you could wizz through them.
1. The war was clearly the most significant thing that caused Labout to lose 4 million votes from 1997-2005. Given that you have said that the war was a mistake, could you not have advised Gordon Brown to do similar? He brought the troops home which was good and did not use the same George Bush rhetoric as Tony Blair did in his speeches but when you are down in the polls, surely he could have made a more candid apology? You were part of Gordon’s team so do you share some blame for this because although you have been on record yourself in the past on this, it really did need to come from the horse’s mouth to make a significant impact.
2. What is the point in saying it is wrong if we cannot get any guarantees that the party we trust with our vote will not engage in the same mistakes again? I sense déjà vu in the way we are dealing with Iran. It is a country that has NO nuclear weapons and has never threatened the UK yet the same threatening language is being used. It seems to me we have learnt no lesson from the Iraq war.
3. Tony Blair was despised because of the totally unfair way he dealt with the Israel-Palestine issue including Israel’s war on Lebanon in 2006. Israel is a country that is in flagrant violation of international law with its continued expansion of illegal settelements on occupied Palestinian land and is in breach of more UN resolutions than any other country. They DO have a stockpile of nuclear weapons that are totally unaccounted for and just yesterday it was revealed they tried selling nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa. We do not hear about inspectors, sanctions or threats of military action here. Why Iraq, Iran but not Israel? The question is if Labour truly wishes to become a party that talks a striaghter politics with fairness at its heart, will we see a more just and fair policy to help those suffering in Palestine? Will Labour listen next time it comes to issues on foreign affairs?
4. What do you think went wrong on the election campaign. Gordon Brown delivered a superb speech at Citizen’s UK. That was the Labour I gew up supporting and i think it really brough out the true Labour spirit. He left Cameron and Clegg leagues behind showing that he had the passion and erudition in his speeches that none of the other two posessed. He gave fantastic speeches in the last week and my question is that should he not have spent his time delivering speeches filled with this Labour passion instead f shaking hands with people in old factories? It should have come much earlier. It was only in the last week that he spoke of the Labour record and attacked the Tories. People needed that reminder.
I do hope that the new leaders can continue in the same fashion (not shying away in showing admiration for the positive work of Gordon Brown and also attacking Tory policy where needed), and do you agree that the speech of Gordon Brown at Cizitzen’s should be used as the blueprint for the next Labour party?
Just noticed some typos/spelling, that’s what happens when you rush! Hope I made the 6pm deadline and that my questions get answered!
Ed,
I don’t know enough about you to decide yet whether to vote for you or not, outside of the newspaper attacks. I’m just joining the Labour Party now after the elections.
I’d like to ask about the virtues which I think a prime minister should have. They might not be the right ones to ask but they’re the best ones I can think of.
Do you have courage and if so when have you shown it?
Do you have intellect, and if so what moment could you tell me about where you used it best for someone else’s good?
Do you have charisma and if so for what purpose have you employed it?
Do you have vision, and if so what moment can you remember when you displayed that vision?
Are you honest, and if so could you tell me a moment when you were honest whilst it was difficult and not to your advantage to be so?
Do you have kindness, and if so could you tell me a moment when you were kind when it gave no advantage to be so?
Many thanks, and do you reply to our emails directly or do we watch here?
Tony
Ooooooh mods on here don’t like dissent do they. To repeat my question.
“Why do you now think Brown is a useless article and why didn’t you do something about it while in office? When did you have this conversion to the Force?”
We’ve now done the interview, which will appear either later today or early tomorrow.
So this thread is now closed.
Thanks for the helpful contributions.