Mirror Balls

I never really paid much attention to Ed Balls, beyond childish sniggering at his name. But this week he said something that made me pay attention. In his blog, he blamed the administration of Dundee's Realtime Worlds on the Con/Lib coalition's cutting of Labour-instituted tax breaks for video game developers. He also said:-

The [video game] industry, which contributed to £1bn to the UK economy last year, is competing with significant incentives provided by countries like Canada who are seeking to entice companies to relocate jobs there.

Ed Balls MP

This struck a chord with me for a few reasons. Firstly, I am interested in the video game industry (obviously). Secondly, I grew up near Dundee and I don't like to see these things happening in the closest thing I have to a hometown. Thirdly, I am a Canadian citizen and plan to move to Canada when I finish my PhD.

I don't necessarily believe it, of course: Realtime Worlds' reach exceeded their grasp with APB. They took a big risk on it, and it didn't work out. That's just business, and in my totally uneducated opinion has little to do with government support. Balls makes a solid point, though, in that a non-government-supported British industry can't really compete with a government-supported foreign industry.

Although my reasons for wanting to move to Canada are as much personal as they are industrial (if not more so), Balls' statements made me feel uncomfortable. Of course, he was really criticising the Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition, but, through a trifecta of coincidences, it almost felt like he was directly accusing me of being a traitor.