Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, has caused much furore by his pronouncement at a Labour conference yesterday that the economic downturn is likely to be the worst for over one hundred years and could lead to Thirties-style political extremism:
“The economy is going to define our politics in this region and in Britain in the next year, the next five years, the next 10 and even the next 15 years.
“I think that this is a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s and we all remember how the politics of that era were shaped by the economy.”
Given that Mr Balls is Gordon Brown’s key adviser, closer to him than the Prime Ministerial underwear and privy to as much economic information as the Treasury possesses, this leaves Mr Brown with a choice of two courses of action.
On the one hand, he can acknowledge that Mr Balls is correct and that Britain has to batten down the hatches in preparation for an indeterminate period of financial stringency, with all that implies; in other words, he can stop treating the British people like fools and start speaking to them as adults.
On the other, if Mr Balls is talking dangerous and alarmist nonsense, he can sack him.
No doubt the Prime Minister will act with his usual decisiveness.
