Good week/bad week

(Or how the fickle hand of fate can affect political fortunes)

Bad week
Barack Obama
The sh*t really hit the fan for President Obama last week with reactionary protests against his healthcare reforms and accusations of lying/racism. The Prez was forced to go on the offensive with a marathon media blitz but this, unsurprisingly, also drew criticism. The honeymoon period is most definitely over. Troubled times ahead...

Ed Balls
The Education Secretary caused a furore when he announced plans for educational spending cuts by getting rid of up to 3,000 head teachers and creating federated schools. Nick Clegg called the proposals “madness” while George Osborne got the chance to momentarily deflect attention away from his own sizeable troubles (see below).

George Osborne
Much has been written about Osborne’s misjudgment on the ‘secret tax’ fiasco and I, for one, won’t add to the struggling shadow chancellor’s predicament by writing anymore. See here.