One of the more intriguing sidelines to the recent cabinet reshuffle was the suggestion that Gordon Brown wished to replace Alastair Darling at the Treasury with Ed Balls, but could not risk doing so in case Mr Darling resigned from the Cabinet, a story that Mr Brown of course flatly denied. Apart from casting doubt upon the degree of confidence inspired at #10 Downing Street by the occupant of #11 (the Prime Minister probably thinks, with considerable justification, that Mr Darling is a bad case of 'after the Lord Mayor's Show'), this story does inspire the thought that the Prime Minister may have been toying with the thought of appointing as Chancellor the one man whose surname makes for even better headlines than the current incumbent!
However, the purpose of ths blog is actually to recount a story I heard told some years ago by Ed Balls against Gordon Brown, which went as follows:
One Sunday morning, when Ed Balls was part of his Treasury team, Gordon Brown phoned Ed Balls about the Sunday Times list of 100 key policy makers, which had been published that day. The purpose of the call was to congratulate Ed Balls on being number 2 on the list. Gordon Brown went on to say that he had expected to be below Tony Blair ("this was before Iraq", said Ed Balls) but was disappointed to be below Margaret Beckett. "Gordon, who is number 1 on the list?" asked Ed Balls. "That's another funny thing" replied the Chancellor "it's Gerry Adams". "Gordon, the list is in alphabetical order" announced Ed Balls.
So this whole blog is just really an excuse to tell this particular anecdote!
Mark Simpson
11 June 2009
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