Sunday, April 25, 2010

Labour Now Turns Its Scare Stories onto Parents

Ed Balls has just said on Channel 4 News that the Conservatives have promised to cut 1 teacher and teaching assistant from every primary school in Britain and 5 teachers from every secondary school.

Liar.

UPDATE: Cathy Newman and Channel4 FactCheck appear to agree.

25 comments:

increasinglymiffed said...

This has previously been given the thumbs down by the C4 Factcheck team, I seem to remember!

Anonymous said...

I hope that his Tory opponent in Outwood is letting the constituents know what they have for a liar in Balls

increasinglymiffed said...

See http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/2010/04/18/will-the-tories-really-make-teachers-redundant/

Anonymous said...

And then pensioners will be killed off to save money that can be spent on tax cuts for billionaires

Honest

Kryten 2X4B 523P said...

Its not so much "There'e lies, damn lies, and statistics" any more as "There's lies, damn lies, and Labour Party Electoral Propaganda."

sheesh.

Tony_E said...

Is Balls the nastiest politician ever elected to parliament?

thespecialone said...

Oh wouldnt it be great to see the back of Balls on 7th May.

Moriarty said...

Has anybody read anything in the Tory manifesto specifically ruling out stealing my bicycle? Do I need a new lock?

Michael Heaver said...

Desperate times, desperate measures?

King Athelstan said...

We all Know David Cameron will eat your babies.

Cynic said...

To borrow a lyric

Oh darling why'd you talk so fast
Another evening just flew past tonight
And now the daybreak's coming in
And I can't win and it ain't right

You tell me all you've done and seen
And all the places you have been without me
Well I don't really want to know
But I'll stay quiet and then I'll go
And you won't have no cause to think about me

There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
Just like you swore to me that you'd be true
There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
But he's a liar and (I think so are) you

Stepney said...

He really is such a nasty lying shit.

I so hope he loses his seat. And then can't get a job. Is there anyone who'd touch him with a barge-pole?

Maybe then he can reflect on the greed that saw the Balls Cooper household gorge themselves on the £800 a month we spent on their groceries.

And I hope he thinks of the pensioners who couldn't afford to put the heating on because they paid 30% tax on their pensions to put free food on his table.

Nasty, lying, shit.

Anonymous said...

OH where do i start!!! well as well as the millibands id love to see the family thats full of Balls lose their seats as well as the slimy liam Byrne and bumbbling Bob Ainsworth who on earth would ever recruit any of the above?????

Silent Hunter said...

Stepney:

I think you're being rather easy on him.

He's much worse than that.

Jimmy said...

"Cathy Newman and Channel4 FactCheck appear to agree."

Hardly. Balls' figure simply assumes cuts applied evenly across all areas which the tories have not ringfenced. Lightweight has promised to protect certain areas of spending. Schools aren't one of them. Pro rating the numbers may be an inexact method but as long as the tories refuse to come clean about the details it will have to do.

Of course if Gideon does have a trick up his sleeve to make the promised cuts without sacking teachers then no-one's stopping him from letting us all in on the secret.

Unsworth said...

@ Jimmy

Substantial staff cuts are already taking place in Education. They started last year.

So it's the old baby-eaters at it again, isn't it? Just remind us, who is in charge, who has racked up all this 'investment' over the past decade? When do we get to see a return on our money?

Oh, and you might also wish to take a look at the demographics in all of this.

Hughes. said...

Balls by name...

Victor, NW Kent said...

According to the available data on the number of schools in England & Wales the Balls claim would mean that 52,300 teaching staff would have to go - remarkable and scary claim.

That would fly in the face of the declared Conservative policy of protecting front line jobs.

At an average salary cost of £30,000 per person that would result in a saving of £1.57 billion. Of a projected total cost reduction target of £6-billion this appears to be estimating an unreasonable proportion to education. Since £6-billion is only 1% of government expenditure then primary and secondary education should see a cut of £360 million. However, since some areas are ring-fenced then others will have to take up more of the strain and the education cut could be about £500-million. Oddly enough that is precisely the figure that Balls claimed he was experiencing in a budget cut in 2010/11.

Of course, the intention is not to cut teachers or police people or ambulance drivers or firemen or servicemen but to cut quangos and back room staff. The sort of staff who spend their time concocting childish jokes at the Foreign Office or are busy doing absolutely nothing in Regional Development Councils.

The LibDem manifesto on education would require an additional 150,000 teachers. Quite expensive.

Lady Finchley said...

Desperado.

Martin S said...

And they'll eat your babies, too!

Oh, wont someone please think of the children?!

Mrs Rigby said...

I'm starting my own scare story, about the Labour Defence manifesto - there isn't one, at least not according to the Telegraph.

(forgive plug to my site >
http://mrsrigbysays.blogspot.com/2010/04/labour-to-axe-defence.html )

Chris and Laura said...

Labour have done this stuff for the last few elections now. It always worked before. They must be mystified as to why they are not surging ahead.

tvstudies said...

Isn't politics all about lying, Iain?

Antisthenes said...

When it comes to distorting the truth Labour makes Joseph Goebbels look like a rank amateur.

wild said...

"Isn't politics all about lying, Iain?"

No