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Since you ask halibut

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Since you ask, halibut.Simoncarr75 hotmail More from Simon Carr. Whenever politicians complain that the media is far too obsessed with personalities at the expense of issues, you can bet your bottom pound that party relations are in crisis and that personality is behind it. Think Margaret Thatcher and her problems with Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe, or John Major and his troubles with the Eurosceptic "bastards". Of course policy issues were the occasion of argument, but it was the personal feelings that gave the crises their peculiar character.

If it were not for the strange, brooding character of the Chancellor, there would be very little fuss. At bottom, both the Prime Minister and his Chancellor are in accord on the politics of the euro referendum It's simply not on before an election. A European recession is the worst possible time to consider it and anyway, the voters wouldn't buy it. So why take the risk? The huffing and puffing now is all about appearance - how to turn down the proposal today while displaying an ardour for tomorrow. And on that the Chancellor is as much pro-European in intention as his neighbour in Number 10.

If it weren't for the peculiar partnership between the two, there wouldn't be much of a story.So what does drive this hunched Scot in No 11, that makes him so enigmatic, belligerent even, to the average voter? Part of the problem, I think, is that while Mr Brown has a well-earned reputation as an iron Chancellor of prudence and competence, he actually isn't that interested in economics. Ask him about social policy or international relations and his eyes light up. Ask him about the state of sterling or the fall in the markets and he looks faintly confused that you should be interested - or think he would be. His mind roams the uplands of future society, not the marshlands of fiscal policy.That economic disinterest helps to explain the unique position of Ed Balls, his chief economic adviser. To some, Mr Balls is a Svengali figure whose deep scepticism about the euro has determined the views of the Chancellor. But in fact Mr Balls is a relatively straightforward character whose job is to give the Chancellor the economic perspective to express his political instincts.To Mr Balls, making the Bank of England independent was the route to better economic management.

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