Ed Balls may need to remodel himself on the lines of the Labour chancellor of whom it has been said: 'His reputation hinged on one inescapable word, austerity'
If Ed Balls is hoping, as his speech this week suggested, that the nation will come to accept him as a future iron chancellor, he will need to contrive a radical change to his image. Now that appearance matters so much in politics, his youthfully chubby face, his eager, gleaming blue eyes and his kindly (or ingratiating) habit of dropping the name of his interviewer into the conversation approximately every 35 seconds are likely to count against him. He may need to remodel himself on the lines of a Labour chancellor of whom it has been said: "His reputation, in death as in life, hinged on one inescapable word, austerity." Spare and straight-backed and equipped with merciless spectacles, Sir Stafford Cripps, chancellor from 1947 to 1950, was known as a practised ascetic. He was, for a start, a teetotaller, having given up drink when he came to Westminster and saw how much some of his colleagues were drinking. He was also a vegetarian, and adopted a rigorous regime of physical exercise. (As a marathon runner, Mr Balls has made a start in this context, but he will need to show more of a taste for self-punishment). Mr Balls should also note, as he studies his new role model, that, according to one account, such were Cripps's persuasiveness and conviction "that it seemed at times as though the economy was being driven by the moral fervour of one man". That's a statement that he will need to repeat to himself every morning while shaving if he's ever to move into No 11 as Sir Stafford Balls.