The parallels are not exact. The BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing novelty contest is a highly successful institution at the peak of its powers. The contemporary Labour party, less so. Even so, it is surely not stretching it to say that the surge of support for Ed Balls in this year’s Strictly is reminiscent of the anti-Establishment surge that propelled Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of Labour last year. Now it is Ed who has momentum. Thanks to his efforts, this season of Strictly is the light entertainment equivalent of the rise of the Corbynistas, in which an unlikely hero emerges to challenge the system.
At the weekend Balls somehow survived another round of voting, despite an unfortunate incident during his dance routine in which he handled his partner during an ambitious lift about as delicately as Donald Trump on a first date. But the voting public did not hold it against Ed. They know it was an innocent slip and he is doing his best. He’s a good guy, it has been decided, who is prepared to risk humiliation for public entertainment. There, he and Jeremy Corbyn again have something in common, although the crucial difference between the pair is that Corbyn has not yet worked out that his story ends with him being voted out.
And Balls? I suspect – although I acknowledge I know absolutely nothing about it – that the former Labour MP, shadow Chancellor and ex-cabinet minister is going to win this thing. Something is stirring in the electorate. As Alex Massie put it on Twitter: the great British public knows what it is doing. After years of selecting a winner who can dance, the voters are looking for something different.
So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Labour person, a crazed Ukipper, a Mayite Cromwellian, an SNP chappie, a rare Lib Dem or one of Britain’s two remaining Cavalier Cameroons (*), just get on board with Balls. You don’t even have to watch Strictly. I don’t.
Vote early. Vote often. Vote Ed. For a new kind of Strictly.
