Ed's not the only one with no balls

Its been an interesting few days. First there was Cameron's launch of the Tory election campaign - time for er... change apparently. As if we didn't know! It included his own goal on his marriage tax break pledge. As I've pointed out before this is a flawed policy which will only benefit the better off - what did you expect? How do I know? Well, Ian Duncan Smith (IDS), a former Tory leader, headed up some research into poverty. One of the 'findings' they seized on was that children were better off with married parents - therefore marriage is a good idea! Now that fits in nicely with Tory prejudices. But IDS et al made a schoolboy error. The real correlation wasn't with marriage it was with poverty. Better off people get married - poorer people don't. The real damage to children from broken relationships arises because of poverty - not because their parents aren't married. This Tory policy simply discriminates against co-habitees and benefits the middle classes and the rich.

The we had Ed Balls making a feeble attack on the Tories. Predictably feeble because their aren't any real ideological differences between New Labour and the Tories anyway - so there is nothing for him to attack. OK, Labour will make things marginally better for the worse off but they won't tackle the root causes of chronic low pay, inequality and poverty such as de-regulation and privatisation of public services.

Now we have Patricia Hewitt and Geoff 'Buff' Hoon launching a laughable coup attempt on Brown's premiership. They have no chance of dislodging Brown at this stage. The Party knows he's a disaster but there is no real appetite for change and no-one in the cabinet capable of challenging him. Perhaps Hewitt and Hoon should make their next project organising a piss up in a brewery. Who knows? They may even succeed.