Mr & Mrs E M Balls and their little ways

Husband Ed and his other half are proving to be nothing but trouble during this election campaign.  First, Ed went for drink with his comrades:

According to one Labour MP, even Ed Balls, the indefatigable schools secretary, privately thinks the game is up. During a drink with colleagues in a Westminster bar, Balls expressed gloom about Labour’s prospects. “He basically said the Tories were going to win,” said a Labour source.

Second, we move to Labour’s unnecessary early Saturday morning press conference, where Ed and Yvette appeared alongside Liam Byrne.  Cooper, clearly not keen to have been dragged out bed at some unearthly hour, scrawled a note:

It’s clearly second division today - presumably that’s why we’re allowed to do this?

The world and his wife know full well that Ed Balls is speaking with a forked tongue at all times.  On the one hand he must, of course, do everything he can to campaign for a Labour victory.  On the other hand, and more important to him and Yvette, is his ambition to lead the Labour party.

For that reason alone, there are great dangers in exposing these two and others like them in front of the media over the next few weeks.  It also poses a few problems for Lord Mandleson, who has more than enough to do during the campaign.

As they say, will we be back to discuss this in a moment.