R4's new 'I'm the Chancellor' slot
Yesterday’s Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme saw Thought for the Day followed by a new slot – ‘I’m the Chancellor’. Yesterday the slot was filled by Peter Mandelson, who announced that the Comprehensive Spending Review would be postponed until after the next General Election. Mandelson said that he “believed that the Chancellor has made that judgement”, although from the reaction of the Treasury whoever had made the decision, it wasn’t the Chancellor. Mandelson is now Deputy Prime Minister in all but name, having usurped the role that Ms Harman thought she had won, but also the real Chancellor and Lord High Executioner too.
Alistair Darling has stayed loyal to Gordon Brown over the years. As he plodded on as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, he was reassured that when Brown inherited Blair’s post at Number 10, so Darling would also step into his boss’s shoes. But since being given the key to 11 Downing Street, Darling has been briefed against repeatedly. And when the current Chancellor tried to ‘do a Vince’ and warn just how things would get in that infamous Guardian interview he was shot down.
Earlier this month, Darling appeared to have won the battle, if not the war, when he beat off Ed Balls’ designs on his job in the last reshuffle. It soon became clear that this was a Pyrrhic victory in a mere skirmish. Balls has always been a close we see that Darling’s success in staying in post was a mere pyrrhic victory. Balls worked as Mr Brown’s chief Treasury adviser for many years before becoming an MP and it seems that he has been given the green light to be Chancellor in all but name.
This morning, it was Ed Balls turn to be the Chancellor. In a somewhat breathless and rushed spat with Sarah Montague, he used every possible euphemism for ‘cuts’ and some that had not previously been thought of. ‘Everything’s paid, for’, ‘all guaranteed’, ‘set out very clearly’, ‘extra money found’, ‘setting out our propectus’, ‘clear accountability’, ‘making savings’ – all the buzz words where there, but with absolutely no content. However it was clear that as the man at the helm of education, Ed Balls sees himself at the very forefront of controlling policy at the spending ministries, if not the second ‘Real Chancellor’.
So who will it be tomorrow just before the 8 am news to politically cuckold the Chancellor? Roll up, roll up for Glenys Kinnock, Dawn Primarolo or Baroness Vadera – maybe not, as they are of the wrong gender. The way things are going, it could be a surprise comeback from Tom Watson. Even my own MP, who has made a seamless transition from über-loyal Blairite to über-loyal Brownite, need not be totally out of the running.
So stand by your radios tomorrow morning and await the latest episode of ‘I’m the Chancellor’. You never know – one day it could be you!
Related posts:
Comments
Leave a Reply:
