YouSaid · the spoken record

Ed Balls

lines on the record: 43
first: 2021-12-27
most recent: 2021-12-27
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“That, but that felt so unchristmassy, but you know, so but that is, I remember, I mean, to be honest, of course I was upset about Peter resigning. Yeah, of course. But the joint...”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was the DTI secretary, but he had taken a loan which he hadn't declared from Geoffrey Robinson. As he rings me on my mobile to say Peter Madison's resigned, I suddenly realise we've left the beef in Avette's parents' fridge at home. And I turn to Avette and say Where's the beef? And Gordon said I don't think you heard me Peter Manderson has resigned and I said to Jervette. Is it too late? And Gordon said What do you mean is it too late? He's already resigned and I said to Yvette, can we turn back There's no turning back now echoed down the phone and so but I got off the phone with Gordon having lamented Peter Mandelson's resignation Rangovet's mum she drove in from Hampshire we fully checked in solo and handed over through security the beef made it to Italy Peter you know was no longer a cabinet minister Charlie Wheeler I was a bat”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And this was when Peter Mannerson had just been exposed for the Geoffrey Robinson loan. After a couple of days, in nineteen ninety eight this would be.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the beef. The oh my goodness. Well, this is the anecdotes or stories only work if they're true. You can't make this up because it's so ridiculous, but it's entirely true. My mum and dad were living out in Italy and we were going out of Vetnai for Christmas. We were flying out. And my mum said, the beef in Italy, it's not as good as you can get in an English butcher. Can you bring out a sirloin joint? So I buy one and we were staying at a vet's mum and dad, drove into up from them down in Hampshire to Heathrow. And as we're driving into Heathrow, Yvette's dad was driving, me and Yvette with the beef, my phone rings, and it's Gordon Brown on his mobile phone, and he said. Eddie said, Peter Manderson has resigned.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do like to sing Saturday Boy. I remember the first time I met her, that September evening was clear and fresh, the ways she walked and laughed at my jokes and the way she rubbed herself up against the edge of my desk. She became a magic mystery to me, and we'd sit together in double history twice her week, and I come and stop that I have really enjoyed playing bark on the piano. I love handle opera. Joshua Redman, the jazz saxophonist, absolutely brilliant. And I'm going to keep going. Nicola Simone. Are Nicola Edward my favourite Ed Balls anecdote?”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What's he doing? Favorite dish then? favoured dish i mean i don't think in life you ever have if you're a meat eater anything better than the best steak you ever have i mean the best steak is just the best thing my favorite thing to cook i really like doing souffle and i will do on christmas day every year 20 soufflets individual soufflets as a starter before the main course and i think people everybody thinks soufflets they're really hard they're dead easy okay favorite music”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let politics off the hook. And I think what I was trying to do, what I learned, what I could say to people is, you know, we, the voters, we can change things and politics will then have to respond. And I hope it does. It's Christmas. We've got to have a Christmas quiz. Yep. Oh my goodness. Strictly, famous. Well how could you not say Ganglam Star? Because, you know, even now I get emails every week from people saying I was feeling down and I watch Ganglam style and it cheered me up. And isn't that a lovely thing? And they, particularly, George, you're teaching Michael Gove Ganglum style. Every time my mum watches it, she sees it for the first time and she rolls her eyes. And inside she's thinking.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If I'd gone in making a current affairs documentary about social care, where I said, look, I've come to tell you what the problem is and what the answer is. There would be some people who would say brilliant. Then some people would say, I hate him. I'm not going to listen to what he says. And we wouldn't have advanced. Whereas if you actually go in and say, come with me, let's go and see. You go and listen in the way in politics you should listen to what the voters say first, you see things, and you learn things, but also changes your view. And I think that the really easy thing to say on social care is why hasn't politics sorted this out? And the hard thing to say is why have we as a society? Why have we voters never demanded they sorted it out in the way we've demanded the potholes or the NHSQs or the class sizes? And that is about us rather than simply about politics.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I've done some television which was just really fun. Strictly best home cook. I mean, experiences you'd never expect to have in your life. And if you simply make people smile, that is really good. But I think the parts of television I've really enjoyed found fulfilling when people say that they saw things they hadn't seen before.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And things I'd never, I mean, I've changed pads lots and lots of times. I've taken people to the toilet lots of times. I've washed people, I've shaved somebody. Things I'd never done in my life, but I think what it does is the viewer comes in with me and they see what I see. And I think lots of people who don't work in care or haven't seen it, I mean, I've got a mum in care and I didn't know. And you think, goodness, that's what it is. And why aren't we valuing this? What are we doing?”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“my mum and I think that what the documentaries are all about is the viewer coming in with me on my shoulder it's not sort of me having a view or giving a lecture or having an opinion”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I very consciously went into it, wanting to ask the question why has it taken politics so long to sort out social care? And in the very first conversation I had with the BBC and with expectation months before we started filming, I said that I feel guilty we didn't do more. And that became a starting point for the film. I absolutely didn't intend to go in the talk in the way I did about my mum. Clearly that was a motivation for me doing it, but I never wanted to do Ed Ball's my care story. But there was a learning I had in those first couple of weeks about the nature of care and its skill and complexity which suddenly made me realise, and the same thing was true for my brother and sister that we didn't really understand quite how hard it was the job that was being done to look after.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But it has to be about the second thing as well as listening and looking for common ground to persuade. The second thing is you have to have a view about the future. And if it ever looks like political parties are trying to refight the past or take us back, actually I think that becomes quite risky and quite dangerous.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think you have to start at a step before that, which is to talk about what you think and what you feel and what you value. That's what we're doing in the Trumpland programs. If you listen and you hear, then you can start a conversation where we say, well, actually, we agree, but it sometimes means we have to change what we say. And sometimes you have to kind of expose that the other side's not got an answer. But if you don't listen first, and then it's okay to agree. It's okay. It's okay. There are things which the government does which are good. And things they do which are bad. And in politics, the only things which last are the ones which become consensual. The things which George Osborne and I agreed on are the things which last like the minimum wage”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The evil guys, I mean, how bad, how reprehensible. The same thing is true, of course, in Scotland. I mean, Labour's got to win back people who may traditionally have voted Labour, then voted SNP.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the distinctive th Post ninety two When Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were leader and shedder Chancellor is that they were always speaking first of the country. They were never shoring up their own side as a priority. They were never, they weren't fighting an internal battle where you had to sort of make your side feel good against the other internal fight. It was always outward looking and I don't think I think one of the key things you have to do in politics is you have to be reaching out to people who need to be persuaded. And if you're going to take the coder situation, there are people who voted conservative in 2019, who voted Labour in 2015 or 2010. They voted conservative in 2019. Labour's not going to win unless it persuades those people to come back. And if it sometimes sounds as if Labourers saying”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some of their jumble, they can think contradictory things, but also they have a different, have had a different experience. But if you listen and understand, that's how you can sometimes persuade.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They don't hear what you say back. And that respect about people's, and once you start to listen, of course you find there's people who might have sometimes extreme views, but actually many people have views which are, I'm not so different from your views, but they're a jumble.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But that is absolutely not a post politics learning. I think I learned that. A big change happened for me in 2005. I'm elected for a safe labour seat. The boundaries change. Suddenly within a year, I'm going to be fighting a very marginal constituency, so marginal that I end up losing it in 2015. It was a seat which had the largest British National Party membership in the country, elected a BNP councillor in the run-up to 2010. It was a seat which ended up voting clearly for leave in 2016. And this is very important for I think for current politics as well. If you write off people because it looks like they have a view that people like you disagree with, then you never understand. You can't persuade, but you don't persuade because they don't hear. If people don't think that you listen to what they say, then”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If you're hard enough, when people were having a go at me in the House of Commons, but you do... It's hard for me to disconnect how I have changed my perception with the way in which politics has also changed over the same period because I look at the nature of political discourse now and it is so much more confrontational and so much more entrenched to spur your group on you have to hate the other side you have to sort of think they are not just wrong but evil and I don't feel that way about”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think, well, of course that is the case because you're continually learning and getting perspectives and having time to reflect. And when you're away from the intensity, you have more time for that. I slightly kind of blanch at that because I get a lot of, we always knew that you were a politician. It's great to see you've now become a human being. And I don't like that because politicians are human beings. And I kind of think I was one even when I was in the cabinet. And I think the people who knew me never thought that I was sort of the bruiser or the bully. I mean, I've got to say, if you've grown up as a child with my surname, you don't like bullies very much because actually it's just not the way you do things. But it also did mean at times I would stick my chin out and say, hit me.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was a conscious decision to think I can use time now in a different way. The same thing was true with the piano. I'd always wanted to play the piano. We'd never had a piano at home. Suddenly the kids had a new teacher and I thought it's consistent with being shadow chancellor to give this some time and it's been brilliant. I mean ten years in. My hands still shake but you know I love it.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The thing is, we had been in the intensity of government for a couple of years, and Vetta and I were both cabinet ministers together when our oldest child was only eight years old, and there would be intense weeks when I would leave so early and come back so late that I wouldn't see the children all week. And so when you go into opposition, you do have a chance. There is less time, pressure, there's less things you have to do compared to being in the cabinet. But no, I made a conscious decision that I wanted to spend more time with the children. I wanted to be home more in the evenings if I could. I wanted to do things which I'd missed in previous years. I wanted to get fit. I then ran the mouth in three years running, raised 160,000 pounds, got much fitter, felt much healthier, and the decision actually I should do that.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think genuinely I thought In danger of having a midlife crisis, so therefore I should plan it. I mean, I've always been somebody who likes to think about, to have a view and have a plan and kind of sort things out. And I thought, well, this is a time to start thinking about things which are important and devote more time to them.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You've been in government for a long time is really difficult because you know what you're missing and you feel those frustrations. But I think when I was shadow chancellor, it was a time to reassess and think about the past, but also what was important in my life, the things I was doing. And so although there were things I've done since 2015, which have carried that on, I think I actually started before.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, but I actually think that the college's decision didn't happen in twenty fifteen. It happened in 2010 because we'd have been in government for 13 years and then we lost and we were all exhausted and you had then plunged into this long labour leadership election and then that autumn, I mean I think by that point we were all absolutely shattered and that was the point where there were days when it was hard to get motivated again to be as I was at the beginning with shadow Home Secretary. I think that was a tougher time and going into opposition”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You should always remember it might be a conspiracy. Being good at politics means you always got to have an eye on what the plot might be, but actually there's also lots of randomness and things which are unexpected. I mean, it's so miserable to think what if only to feel as though to be disappointed. And I think it's really dangerous. Michael Portillo said this to me in this very building. He said, I went back after I lost my seat in 1997 to try and set the record straight to, he went back into Parliament to try and prove them wrong. Biggest mistake, he said I ever made because I did it for all the wrong reasons. And I think you have to look forward to new things and be proud of what you've done.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I used to talk to Gordon about these things. I mean, we were talking for hours and hours and hours. Gordon was a bit more determinist about how things would work out. And one of the things I would say to him is that we must always remember any event, it's probably a cock-up.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. And I was on Zoom a few days ago for three hours with Harvard students, about ten of them that day, young people in their twenties, mainly Brits, but not all of them Brits, wanting to think about their futures, their careers. And lots of them say, you know, do you think I should go into politics? And I think one of the things you have to say to people is it's not a conventional career where you kind of rise up and you can see your future stretching before you. In medicine, in law, in accountancy, in the civil service, you can see that career path. Maybe media has become less predictable in terms of careers. In politics, it's totally not predictable. And there's so much luck whether you happen to be in the right place and whether the moment opens up.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that in a positive way, different generations have different experiences. Some generations can spend years and years in politics and never get into government. We were there for 13 years. It just happened that it started when I was just thirty for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in their early forties. We had a large majority. The country was looking for change. It was an era where things were opening up. And it was an opportunity to do new and different things. And those for me, what was it, eight years in the Treasury, I mean, they were undoubtedly the period of my life where I had the most influence and the most MacLeod. I think the hardest thing I ever did politically was being a cabinet minister. I kind of think to myself what an honour to have had that opportunity.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For years and years, I'd had a job at the treasury to go to in 1988, deferred it because I went to Harvard for two years. I actually worked there for the summer in 1989 with Nigel Lawson as Chancellor. I was studying in Harvard. We were studying central bank independence and the case for it and how you could do it differently. Spent four years at the Financial Times writing about it, wrote a pamphlet in 1992 about how you could do it in a labour way. First talked to Gordon Brown five years before we did it. So I think that that's just one small example of a much bigger picture. We'd been in opposition for a long time. But after we lost in nineteen ninety two, Blair and Brown were deeply not complacent. They never thought they were going to win. They always feared it was going to be lost, but the intensity of the preparation was quite something.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When I wrote the paper and presented it to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in an Away Day in 1995, I was twenty eight. But the thing is, We worked intensively for years. I mean, I think I'd essentially spent seven years, eight years of my life thinking about that moment by the time we arrived in 1997.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I couldn't really remember what I'd said. So when I'm watching it, I'm thinking when I come on, oh my goodness, what am I about to say? And actually, I think in general, what... The conversations I've had afterwards, I was talking to Angie Hunter about it, and we both were saying how it was warm, it was nostalgic, it was fair. At times it was challenging for Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, but you did feel as though this was it was a serious era. When Gordon Van and Tony Blair were continually striving together in opposition then to government to kind of think what's the answer? What's the future? What's the argument? And that sort of that professionalism to me it really shines through the screen.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but that was quite common across all of us. I went in for four different three hour sessions because they want to talk at length. And so...”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In our time in government, all of us who were in it would have sort of tipped up with a press officer and recorded the whole thing and negotiated the terms, whereas actually, you know, different now, and they asked me to do it, and I thought, sure, I think I recorded eleven hours of interviews. And I think”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“and with the Chancellor say deferring, you could end up, you know, ask George Osborne and David Cameron, ending up making decisions which in retrospect you regret. And so part of good government is challenge, and there is a constitutional role for the Chancellor, especially with a large majority, to challenge and argue, and vice versa. But, you know, when people don't like that, then that becomes, that feeds a caricatured, doesn't it?”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That wasn't quite your reputation in politics, was it? Well, that's partly, I think. Politics is a very physical cartoon kind of thing. So there's always caricature. And, you know, if I had been lighter or smaller, it would never have been the same kind of caricature, you know, the cartoonists in the newspapers, they find something and make it bigger. But the truth was that also if you're going to do government well, then it's partly about having the argument. And I have been teaching for the last few years at King's in London, and we look at different Prime Minister-Chancellor relationships and how they worked and whether they had good or bad outcomes. And you don't want the relationship to be dysfunctional, to break down, as happened, for example, with Margaret Thatcher, Nigel Lawson. In the end, Nigel Lawson is forced out and resigns. But on the other hand, if the relationship is just one of”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Look, as Yvette said to me at the time, the gut pictures struck a chord with middle-aged men and their wives across the country. So that's connection, that's authenticity. And then the terrible Rob Merrick moment, what can I say, as I was steadying myself to shoot, he threw his eye at my elbow. What was he doing? I don't know. I don't know how this happened. It was not in any way intentional, but it was, yeah, let's just say it slightly kind of fed the caricature.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The problem was it wasn't just on television. There were cameras there. I played football for the House of Commons against the press every year for fifteen years. All these press photographers, they're behind the goal every time the top Premier League football players play. But of the thousand pictures they take, they pluck out the best one which would show Wayne Rooney in his pomp as he heads the goal, whereas if you are politician of the thousand pictures, they pick out the one which will make you look worse. That's just the nature of the game. The problem was because they were able to pluck out the one picture which made him look kind of... Completely, and it was unfair because I'm sure it was probably quite a nice, discreet bite, but if you've got Stills photographers, it's never going to look good.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If only he'd ask me, it's a terrible idea because the trouble is the bacon's chewing, the bread's chewy is never quite clear what is eating what? You know, is the bacon sandwich consuming you or are you eating the bacon sandwich? I think a minced pie. I think you can pull it off.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's a terrible idea, Nick, but it all depends upon what you eat. Right. And you learn this over the years. Spaghetti bolognese disaster.”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I love Christmas cooking and I love New Year cooking as well so right now I'm looking forward to three days through New Year's Day every year for the last twenty years we've had the same kind of eighteen twenty people come when they first arrived our children were tiny their kids were tiny these days the twenty somethings they're beyond teenagers they come back because they know it'll be fun everybody together four families and the food will be good and my job is to deliver three course meals three days running for twenty people and I totally I love it I love the logistics I love the working out if I can make it all happen I try some new things sometimes although you know as I've discovered if you try new things it just goes down really badly with teenagers Dad why are you doing new stuff? Just do the things you know we like”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think the most important thing for post-Christmas leftovers is chips, homemade chips my mother in law is brilliant at making homemade chips, cuts the potatoes, double cooked in a pan, and you can get through quite a lot of cold turkey or cold goose if the chips are good and crisp and nice and salty. I think the other thing I've learned over the years in our family, nobody wants leftovers. So therefore you have to cook thinking let's not have too much to hang around in the days afterwards and so Christmas Day this year I've done a goose which is doesn't have a huge amount of meat and then also a turkey crown and the butcher I go to always is very disapproving a turkey crown ridiculously bad value for money get the whole thing but the whole thing hangs around for days and days and days and after a day and a half says no more turkey and so”
2021-12-27 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Ed Balls Christmas Special One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source