The Sketch: Why the Speaker might like to rechristen the shadow Treasury team

The Chancellor had finished some rhetorical answer at Treasury questions with the words "deficit reduction programme" and the Speaker said with a nonchalant certainty: "Balls!"

What he needs to ventilate his feelings fully is a shadow Treasury team rechristened in a specific faith. So, after Michael Fallon urged from the front bench: "The independent OBR predicts 1m more in employment by 2014", the Speaker could call out: "Cack!"

Andrew Tyrie, the chair of the Treasury committee, pointed out the difficulty of strengthening bank balance sheets while maintaining lending and then asked shareholders to insist profits be reinvested rather than distributed in bonuses...and the Speaker could shout: "Cobblers!"

The Chancellor said that international aid will rise from £8.5bn to £12bn "and if we attack that then the coalition supporting it will fall apart," and the Speaker could bark: "Watt-Bollocks!"

Yes, yes, never mind that. Looking beneath the highly educated, massively informed, statistically opulent arguments – the debate comes down to something as simple as that.

The left say we mustn't depress demand by cutting spending. The right say we mustn't depress demand by high interest rates. Either might be correct – either has been correct from time to time, and each side can confidently abuse the other. No doubt it will all sort itself out. In the meantime there is the debate to pass the time.

Ed Balls gave Rachel Reeves (that Tory favourite) his two main questions. What is he up to? Cynics speculate he was trying to ingratiate himself with Labour's sisterhood in order to give substance to his Homme Nouvel branding and to prepare the ground for his wife's leadership bid.

Some additional evidence for that cropped up in the later economic debate. Remember that euro membership is still Labour policy. Remember too that Ed Miliband has said he sort-of favours joining it "depending how long I'm Prime Minister for". So his Chancellor surprised the chamber – no less than his leader – by saying "No British government will join the euro in my lifetime."

Ed Miliband might kill him of course, but it is certainly fair to say that Ed Balls more than anyone was responsible for keeping Britain out of the euro. That is quite an abrupt – and public – assertion of eurosceptic economics over his master's europhile politics.