Ed Balls says that "trade unions must not walk in to the trap" of striking to defend their pensions. He says it is all a cunning plan by George Osborne to blame unions for the economy going wobbly. Hundreds of thousands of trade unionists will ignore Balls's crafty strategy of not fighting on June 30, when teachers and civil servants strike.
Balls's deceptive kung fu move of defending pensions by doing absolutely nothing doesn't seem to appeal.
Maybe it's because Balls's previous crafty moves have gone so badly. Far from avoiding traps, Balls can't wait to rush into them.
Back in 1991 he wrote in Marxism Today: "The allure of a minimum wage is deceptive and should be resisted" and "could make poverty worse."
Minimum wage make poverty worse? How could he be so daft?
Balls fell into the classic trap of believing a minimum wage would lead to high unemployment.
He wrote that the government "cannot tell private employers both how much to pay people and how many people to employ" because "if it sets a floor to wages, some employers will cut costs by cutting employment. Lower employment could exacerbate the problems of poverty."
Luckily the unions persuaded Labour to ignore Balls, so the last government left some positive legacy.
Balls also fell into the trap of recommending banking and financial deregulation when he was an adviser to Gordon Brown and then Treasury minister. That went really well.
And Balls fell deep into the trap of thinking the Iraq war would work out OK.
These days he admits making a "mistake," that "it was an error for which we as a country paid a heavy price and for which many people paid with their lives."
We now know from Mehdi Hasan's biography of the Labour leader that Ed Miliband did argue with Brown to resign over the Iraq war in 2003, ringing from the US to make the case to Gordon.
But Balls sneered at Miliband, arguing that Brown should stick with the war. That went really well too.
In fact Balls seems to jump into every right-wing trap he can. He sees a rake lying on the ground and steps firmly on the head so the shaft smacks him in the face.
Balance a pail of water on top of the door and you can be sure Balls will barge through, leaving himself soaked and humiliated, wearing a bucket like a comedy hat.
There goes Balls, with the "Kick me" sign on his back, ready to shake hands with whoever has the electric buzzer in their palm, desperate to smell the squirty flower on your lapel.
You hardly even have to disguise your spike-filled pit with leaves before he'll dive in. Even if he put on a long flappy shoes, a big red nose, multicoloured jacket and bald head wig he wouldn't have any less credibility, trap-avoidance-wise.
Balls seems to have convened a "trap-avoidance panel" chaired by Wiley E Coyote, with expert advice from Yosemite Sam and Daffy Duck. But the sad thing is he thinks he's the Roadrunner.
So it is not surprising that striking trade unionists are unconvinced.
The worst thing is that Balls has fallen in to the classic new Labour trap.
Balls tried last year to get votes from union members in his bid for the Labour leadership. His long election statement to Unions Direct included the claim that "the Tory/Liberal attacks on public-sector pensions are hypocritical, unfair and unwarranted - at worst they are an excuse for cuts - and I will fight them tooth and nail."
Balls added that "properly listening to and engaging with union members is the best way for Labour to stay rooted and in touch with millions of working people on modest and middle incomes who depend on Labour to stand up for them."
He didn't win the leadership, but he got a shadow cabinet job as consolation.
Now Balls thinks he can take the union vote for granted and win right-wing support by dissing the strikers.
But these attempts at triangulation just wear away Labour's core support, while the obvious opportunism doesn't win new friends.
On June 30 there will be a big show of opposition to the government and Balls will have trapped himself in irrelevance.
Solomon Hughes 23rd June 2011 Morning Star