The Co-Op's "fabulous performance," by Ed Balls

If anyone doubted that the political class needed an injection of people with proper business experience, read Shadow Chancellor Ed Ball’s words on the embattled Co-Op Group,

“Let’s be completely honest: the performance of the Co-operative group over recent years has been fabulous, across all its many different retail businesses.

“And actually, as a bank, the Co-operative bank was one of the institutions which came through the financial crisis strong enough to step in and help other organisations in difficulty and in trouble.
“That commitment to local engagement, and to local values, the ability to innovate – that is important for the future.’ 

This is pure fantasy. The Co-op is already closing its larger ex-Somerfield stores and is now planning more fire sales to reduce its £1.3bn of debt. The Bank is now 37 per cent owned by American hedge funds, including one described as a ‘Vulture Fund’.

It’s writing off £500 million on a banking computer system that never worked and we haven’t got to the ‘Rev Flowers bit …

In the olden days MPs were drawn from business, the military and the professions.  Today our political class are fast tracked from university, so so-called think tanks and party operations into government.

To be fair to Balls, he worked at the FT as a financial journalist, but like most of the shadow cabinet and the Cabinet itself he’s never run or been a part of a business.

This has to change ….