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.
Does your ultra marginal seat risk your chances of being leader?
Do you deny putting your friend Damian McBride up to smearing me in February 2007 after I published an investigation into the Smith Institute and the rather large payment you received from a charity in between leaving your Treasury SpAd post and being elected as an MP?
(This post was very slightly edited)
Will your missus endorse your nomination?
Have you no shame?
From which specific actions of the last Government do you wish to dissociate yourself and why did you acquiesce in them at the time?
As one of the most influential members of the last government, why did you not act to prevent the vast accumulation of debt? When you said ‘so what’ to the observation that your government had accrued an enormous deficit, was that because you think that not having any money doesn’t matter?
1. Do you honestly think the country really want “Stalin’s Apprentice” as a PM – after the mess the previous one has made of this once a great nation. A nation that now will spend the next 10 years wandering the globe with a begging bowl trying to pay off the debts racked up by a decade + of over spending without any control just to satisfy his political ego? ACNF (a country never forgets)
2. (With reference to the above) Are you a. totally insane, b. stupid or c. a complete self serving political nonce?
Where do you stand on morals and ethics, as from your history you have none.
Why do youthink almost all Conservative voters are so keen to see you elected leader of the Labour Party?
Do you know how much I despise you and your political beliefs?
Given your admission that the Iraq war was a “mistake” and “wrong”, when will you be surrendering to the Hague?
Ed,
Did you mislead parliament and the inquiry about the role of Ken Boston, the former CEO of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, concerning the topic of national curriculum tests as alleged in the article link below?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/exams-head-balls-sexed-up-evidence-against-me-1672712.html
When did you realise you could beat your wife, in the leadership contest?
Did you like the photoshop of you I did with the hitler moustache?
Bearing in mind all the above, do you really want to put your family through this? Why not go away, do the Party a favour, and the nation, and slide into obscurity. Get a job better suited to your skills. Prison warder, perhaps, or torture expert in Egypt or Uzbekistan, anywhere rather than the UK because here, Mr B, you are not wanted.
The champers is on ice ready for your victory.
James
CCHQ
Who do you think would be better in a fight? Ed or Dave Miliband?
Hi Ed. What would you do as Labour leader to reduce domestic violence?
Have you no sense of how little the electorate think of you? For the good of the party give up now.
if you think the country will vote for you and the gang of union thugs you surround yourself with you are joking.
How does it feel to be an uglier version of your elder brother?
Is it fair to be capitalising on the pain, death and suffering of our troops in Iraq and the civilians killed by saying that the war was unfair, and yet not have the “balls” to say anything about it during the time you WERE in Parliament?
There is a proposal for a major development on green belt land in your new constituency (including a new stadium for Wakefield Wildcats.) Many have opposed the development locally, yet any delay in the stadium risks the Wildcat’s future as a superleague club.
How do you believe controversial planning applications such as this should be dealt with? By local councils or by an unelected quango?
How do you get to be so smug? Did you have to work really hard at it, or are you just a natural? You certainly are very smug. Good luck with the contest, I hope you win a little badge or something.
Is there any chance you could leave politics and take Whelan, McBride, Mandelson, Campbell and all of their poisonous, smearing cohorts with you? If so, please do as you can do no greater service for your country.
Is it true that you are widely disliked within your own party? Why do you think that might be?
Given that you are of the same view as your mentor, Gordon Brown, on so many things, what can you say to make people believe you will do anything else other than run up the deficit even further?
How will you convince voters, who are about to start feeling the real pain of your profligacy, that you won’t go crazy with the national credit card just like the last time?
As a Tory voter I am backing you Ed. Can you please confirm why you are a Norwich City fan?
What is your view on the idea which Leo Strauss attributes to Plato in the Republic, that it is legitimate for politicians to tell “noble lies” to make the populace acquiesce to the politician’s true, hidden intentions?
Is this how you and Mr Brown justified consistently twisting the truth and lying (especially with numbers) during your time in government? What were your hidden intentions? How do you square this disrespect for the public’s intelligence with your professed belief in equality?
Do you think it might be best to give it a while before saying anything, apart from ‘sorry’, to anything that gets done at the moment to try and address what was done over the last, say, 13 years?
Are you happy that you have the backing of the greatest political soothsayer of our our time, Ellie Gellard, who launched the manifesto that led you to your worst result (in vote percentage terms) since Michael Foot?
Will you appoint Anthony Calvert as your Deputy PM in a coalition?
Do you really think that teachers hitting kids at school for misbehaving will work? Or do you think it would be fun for each school to lose thousands of pounds in law suits?
Three families make a remarkable discovery. The sum of the ages of their members are all the same, the sum of the squares of the ages of their members are all the same, and the sum of the cubes of the ages of their members are all the same. Everyone in all 3 families has a different age, and nobody is more than 100 years old.
What is the smallest possible sum of their ages?
Have you seen the front page of todays Independent? Does leaving the country on the brink of bankruptcy it make you feel proud of your time in government?
I know the internet is all about free exchange of ideas etc., but wading through miles of Tory trolling in the comments is really …old.
I think Ed is great and I admire a) his loyalty to GB and b)his willingness to reconnect the Party with middle Britain. But why not ask him about the visceral hatred of him that’s out there on the right wing? How will he manage it and, politically, how will that impact on his ability to get his messages across and reinvent the party?
Please ignore all the pathetic Tory trolls Ed. They’ve got nothing better to do. I bet none of them would dare face you in a real debate, they know you’d make mincemeat out of them. Very brave of them – throwing insults from the safety of behind a keyboard!
The fact is the Tories are scared of you, they know you’re a tougher opponent than the Milibands etc. and you have the passion and determination to make Labour a powerful voice in British politics again.
My question to you is this: Who are your political heroes and why have they inspired you?
Good luck in the leadership contest. You have my full support!
Fabian
Did you tell Tony Blair to pack his bags and go?
On whose authority did you tell Tony Blair to pack his bags and go?
What role should unelected Special Advisers have in deciding who leads the country?
Yiour loyalty to Gordon Brown is unquestioned. How would you describe your loyalty to the elected leader of the Labour Party and the country?
Your personal loyalty to Gordon Brown is unquestioned. In view of our disastrous defeat, do you now think such personal loyalty to him was misplaced?
What did you do to persuade the last Labour Government to change course on any policy proposal?
Do you regret giving a free rein to The City?
Why did the last Labour government give the impression of being dragged, kicking and screaming, to take action on the bankers?
Why do Labour’s proposals for economic reform appear to be cautious and conservative in contrast to those of Barack Obama?
In what other areas of policy have you been wrong?
Why do you appear to be loathed by Party members?
Why are you regularly described as a bully by Party members?
Have you ever bullied anyone?
What friends do you have in the media?
Is your confrontational style at odds with Labour’s need for a more consensual, partnership approach especially to those who share the same values and ideals?
What are your values and ideals?
What do you believe in?
Is your private school education an asset or a liability?
Do you think it healthy for Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and Balls to have all been privately educated?
(I may think of more – when’s the interview?)
What’s your view on bullying in the work place and should you become leader of the PLP would you ask Gordon Brown to be in the Shadow Cabinet? Also did your father beat you as a child?
What, in your opinion, makes you a better candidate for this job than your wife?
As the former Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families do you not view with disappointment the number of ex-public schoolboys challenging for leadership of the party which purports to represent the working class?
Do you agree with me that you should judge a man by the company he keeps? If you do, then how are we to judge you in view of your association with McBride, Whelan, Draper, Brown et al?
Have you ever undergone a CAB check to ensure that you were safe to be children’s minister?
Ed, can you lend me a tenner?
Ed, do you sometimes write under the pen-name “Fabian”?
Dear Ed, Have you ever thought that it might be a very good idea to form an entirely new party? Given the current and foreseeable political climate it may be useful to completely re-invent yourself and a few others as, say, The New Socialist Democratic Party. I wish you the very, very best of luck for your Leadership Challenge and will continue to read your diary every day on Guido’s blog.
Do you regret the New Labour education policy on Academies now that the Coalition Governed are expanding the programme and moving away from theorigional intention. Do you see the Conservative policy on Free Schools ‘taking off’ in our less advantaged communities?
Edward, given the response and questions asked so far, do you “get it” (@copyright G Brown) that you are not wanted and do you think it is “the right thing to do” (@copyright New Labour) to fade away from public life?
What will you do if elected as leader to ensure that the next Labour leadership contest has a more diverse field of candidates, including more than one woman?