Balls

Ed Balls today appeared to be saying that the Tories aren't tough enough on all those smelly foreigners. Apparently a limit on the numbers of immigrants even from EU countries should be enforced.

This is the kind of stupid, reactionary, old school anti-European Labourism that existed in the 70s. It's basically protectionism, but, ironically, puffed up in the language of the unpleasant right. He's talking about not letting those swarthy eastern Europeans come in and steal the jobs from good, hard working, British folk, who want to do less work for more money.

It's bafflingly wrong. It's completely antithetical to free movement of labour which is absolutely essential in a free market.

Now, there's been lots and lots of talk recently about failures in the European project because of failings in the Eurozone, because there aren't balancing mechanisms; and one of the key aspects of this is that although there's free movement of labour there are restrictions over culture and language that prevent enough people moving to allow the balancing that's needed.

And there is a serious argument to be had here. But patently, the solution isn't going to be more protectionism, fewer people moving, and less of those balancing elements.

It would be an argument for staying out of the Euro, but the reality is that the problem is only there because of a lack of controls in terms of making sure that all member states adhere to the Maastricht criteria - and that is largely because what should have been an economic project led largely on economic grounds was taken, instead, by romantics who dreamed of getting southern and eastern European states more quickly and succesfully enmeshed with each other and the EU. Which is a laudable goal, but bringing countries into the EU with large debts and deficits, without the mechanisms in place to keep those debts and deficits down, it meant there were countries in the Eurozone who shouldn't have been on any pragmatic economic basis.

There is no fundamental problem with a common currency of countries like France, Germany, Benelux, Denmark, Scandinavia, and possibly the UK. These are similar economies which had, prior to the recent financial mayhem, fairly similar debt and deficit profiles, and could sensibly have had a common currency. The problem comes when people like Portugal and Greece are shoehorned in to a currency that doesn't suit them.

Back to the main point, though: Ed Balls, eh? Almost as bad as Andy Burnham.