Wanted: Tory Balls
From Mr Brian Basham Sir: Bruce Anderson was right (Politics, 12 May) to point out that the Tories are in disarray largely because they 'have failed to lay the ground over the previous four years'. The reason he gives for this disastrous omission is that William Hague has not been 'brave enough'.
As far as I can see, Mr Hague's failure has nothing to do with courage but everything to do with Balls: Ed Balls, in fact, and the many dedicated, highly intellectual backroom boys like him who worked so hard for so many years when Labour was in opposition.
In modern politics, this is work that can only be done by such people. Senior politicians are kept dancing all day and half the night on the media anthill and then have to fit in their other duties. These days it is only the non-elected thinkers who have the space to sit. Keith Joseph style, with fist to brow creating the 'coherent intellectual package' that Bruce Anderson calls for.
As is known, working with the accountancy firm Arthur Andersen, the now much reviled former Labour minister Geoffrey kobinson and Ed Balls together ploughed tirelessly through complex detail for years. The list of their achievements forms the solid foundation for Labour's coming second victory.
They secured a £20 billion cash-flow advantage, coupled with a £5 billion improvement in public finances, from the abolition of Advanced Corporation Tax and tax credits; something like £6 billion from windfall tax; and that's to say nothing of the immaculate 'Code for Fiscal Stability' and 'golden rule' (borrowing only to invest), granting of operational independence to the Bank of England, the establishment of the Pre-Budget Report, and even the acceptance of the Tory spending plans.
There is no evidence of similar grinding hard work behind the scenes in the Conservative party. Mr Hague behaves as though he is running a sixth-form debating society in which gag-writers reign supreme. He should ask himself where is his Balls?
Brian Basham
London NW1
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