Some saw an attempt by Mr Balls to jockey for position in a post-Gordon Brown government.
What they did not get, however, was much of an idea of what a Brown government may be like.
Or Liam Byrne, who said last week that choice was a 'fetish' and that in a Brown government "there will be a little less said about choice in public services - instead there will be more emphasis on control".
BBC: NEWS | UK | UK Politics | In full: George Osborne speech
No, says Mr Brown, the government is still on course to meet his two fiscal rules.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government is keen to withdraw Britain's remaining forces from Iraq in the fall.
Unfortunately, Gordon Brown's government is conducting itself in ways that undermine those values and jeopardize the security of the Free World.
Mr Brown said the government would make legislative time available for votes on MPs' salaries and allowances to be devolved to an outside body.
There is something incongruous about the prospect of Mr Clegg and David Laws, one of his most talented colleagues featuring in a Brown-led government.
ECONOMIST: Britain��s third party may soon be much more than that
Labour is expected to make gains as the seats were last fought for in 2009, when Gordon Brown's government was unpopular nationally.
He later served as a Home Office minister in Gordon Brown's government.
Oxford University Students' Union has complained of a "cynically minded attempt by Gordon Brown and the government to jump on a populist bandwagon".
The irony of the evident distancing from Britain by the Obama administration is that Brown's government is pursuing policies that Barack Obama seemingly espouses.
In his memoirs, Mr Darling says the last 18 months of Mr Brown's government had a "permanent air of chaos and crisis" about them.
BBC: Darling tells of 'fundamental disagreements' with Brown
But Professor Brown believes the government has not learned from the past and is more concerned about the animal export market than controlling the disease.
So, in political terms, it is understandable that Mr Brown's government is obliging, at the same time portraying the Tories as guardians of the wealthy.
During a visit to the Royal Brompton, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the government would do everything in its power to fully reopen the site as soon as possible.
Mr Brown reiterated the government's opinion that as a condition for the banks being bailed out with taxpayers' money, they had "to end the short-term bonus culture".
Lord Jones, a former CBI chief and trade minister in Gordon Brown's government, said Mr Miliband's speech had been "divisive and a kick in the teeth" for business.
The evidence may, however, lead some to suggest that a climate was created in which banks believed they were under pressure from Gordon Brown's government to cut Libor.
Brown said the government would build 14 new "specially-protected courtrooms" for cases involving "violent extremism" and hire a single senior judge and single senior prosecutor to deal with those cases.
Mr Malloch-Brown, who was minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Gordon Brown's government, also believed the United States would be wise to keep out of the Scottish independence debate.
Mr Brown's government had been seeking to increase the numbers of homes being built in recent years, but the prime minister admitted that "we failed over many years to build enough houses to meet the need that was there".
Never forget, though, that part of what is fuelling it is the desire of the Tories and, in particular, the chancellor's cheerleaders to remind people of the mistakes made under Gordon Brown's government and to try to destroy Labour's economic credibility.
Like the cleverest smears, however, this episode will stick to him, because it seems to confirm something already suspected about Mr Brown and his government: that some of its members and its rivalrous leader are monomaniacal about the getting and hoarding of power.
This may further take the shine off Mr Brown's government but, paradoxically, voters who fear an economic slowdown may be less inclined to trust an untested team of young Conservative leaders rather than the man who, as chancellor, oversaw many years of sustained growth.
Brown's government is limited in how much it can stimulate the economy: Prior to the global financial crisis, Britain's private sector and public sector already experienced growth that was above the norms of the Group of Seven industrialized countries, and unemployment looked unaturally low at 3.6% in 2000.
Shariah courts: Brown's government has begun institutionalizing the practice of separate legal systems for Muslims with the proliferation of "family law" courts where women can be treated, in accordance with Shariah, as second-class citizens - less-than-equal to male Muslims and entitled to a fraction of the property due the latter in the adjudication of divorce or testate matters.
But Mr Brown said the UK government had cut Scotland's capital budget by 30%.
Gordon Brown's new government includes known sceptics about the war, not least the foreign secretary, David Miliband.
Disappointing growth and lower-than-expected tax revenues, coupled with Mr Brown's ambitious government spending plans, are largely to blame.
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